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32: śramana, Vol 64, No. III, July-Sept. 2013
the whole truth because it comes from a study of only part. The goal of anekāntavāda is to be non-one-sided, to remove preconceptions, biases and theories and place the self in the position of the other. It is a shift of sight to many different perspectives, each unique from the other, to arrive at a new conclusion. As Shugan C. Jain writes, “Anekāntavāda is intellectual humility that empowers the user. It is an essential part of being non-violent in our thoughts and words. It shows us why we shouldn't wed ourselves to rigid opinions that disconnect us from reality and stifle the pursuit of fuller understanding."19
The problem, however, for diaspora Jains, is that anekāntavāda is undergirded by a Jain ontology which is religiously guided by right faith, right knowledge and right conduct. This is what the diaspora Jains have forgone in response to a more modern reflection of ahimsā, aparigraha, anekāntavāda. For orthodox Jains, this is not an adequate response, for they are removing the essence of why these vows function in the first place. Is there space in anekāntavāda to cradle the emergent diaspora Jains? Or is there a system that can ground them?
However, because of the notion of anekāntavāda, is it possible for orthodox Jainism to understand that this movement and the philosophy and ethic they are emergently espousing a part of the multiple viewpoint, that it is another view that expands the understanding and in which they can learn from? Here I would introduce Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism, which has the potential to provide a response for diaspora Jains : a constructive metaphysics, creativity, a rethinking of tradition through novelty, a flat ontology and relationality. This can help "solidify" the emergent diaspora Jain community.
Metaphysics The first area of difference in Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism is in his working definition of metaphysics. Metaphysics deals with the most basic generalities of the universe, the first principles of things, which include abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time and space. The locus of Jain metaphysics is found in Mahāvīra's assertions as to these abstract concepts. They are not falsifiable, as Dundas suggests, specifically because there are texts which attest to Mahāvīra's statements.20 However, for the diaspora Jain who has disconnected with orthodox Jain ontology and metaphysics, their is a need for a hybrid notion of these same concepts, grounded not in supermen assertions but in one of experience.
Whitehead would agree that any discussion of metaphysics must begin from direct obser-vation, immediate experience. For it is from the immediate experience that thought begins its process and vice versa. Whitehead uses the metaphor of the flight of an airplane to elucidate his metaphysics. It starts from the ground, makes its flight and it again lands. The notion of starting from the ground is the place of particular observation; we start from a point of reference. The second, flight, is Whitehead's creative aspect, imaginative general- ization. The imaginitive is beyond the usual repetitive notion of logical conclusion, it asks the question of applicability beyond from the locus of which it originated. Thus from one area in which it is true/successful, it enlightens observation in other fields for the elucida- tion or the discerning of general principles.21 The final stage, landing, is once again to enter into observation, checking the conclusions of
