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Doctrinal and Social Context of Non-Violent...: 67 132-133) Quakers' above mentioned departure from the Pennsylvania Assembly provides more evidence of how closely the principle of equality is related to the principle of non-violence.
The most famous Quakers' public engagement derived from the principle of equality started also at this time. It took more than a century to bring its fruit in full. As early as in 1754, an American Quaker John Woolman (1720-1772) published his first tract directed against slavery and in following decades, he persuaded many Quakers to grant freedom to slaves. Quakers gradually started to refuse participation in everything related to the slave trade (Brinton 1952:10). In this process, they were significantly ahead of other Christian churches. In a similar way, the idea of equality of all humans, lead some Quakers to promote humane treatment with prisoners23 and with the mentally ill decades before other humanitarian activists.
In partial conclusion it can be stated that in Jainism, the doctrine of equality relates to such a large scope of living beings that in practice, it has to serve as an ethical maximum to which the Jains are expecting to get ever closer: "All souls deserve similar treatment. By harming another soul, in a way, we are harming our own similar souls." (Mehta 2012: 41-42) Quakers, on the other hand, do not go so far to feel united with souls in all living beings and therefore seem to succeed in influencing the surrounding society more than Jains. The impact of their doctrine of equality seems to be very significant even outside their own community. In the case of Jainism, the main importance of the idea of equality can be found in supporting the principle of ahirnsă.
(3) Jain doctrines of relativity and the decision-making principles of the Quakers
It is probably not mere coincidence that adherents of both religious traditions, that are wellknown for their doctrines of non-violence, have developed remarkable techniques of coping with different opinions. These techniques may serve as a prevention of conflict and therefore they may diminish the danger of violence. At the same time they are probably related to the doctrine of equality, as this doctrine requires respect for every opinion and as it excludes the possibility of a forcibly imposed solution. Once again it can be found, however, that these techniques of the Jains and of the Quakers differ radically in their source as well as in their usage. While Jainism worked out a detailed and precise philosophical system, the Quakers apparently concentrated more on practical impact of the technique both within their community and in larger society.
As the "doctrines of relativity" (Long 2010: 117) may be called the complex of three Jain mutually interrelated doctrines: ontological doctrine of anekantavāda, epistemological doctrine of nayavada and the method of leading a philosophical discourse (dialectic), called syädvāda. The doctrine of anekäntaväda is based on the presupposition that all entities possess attributes that are relative and even in mutual opposition. At all times, their existence is constituted simultaneously by emergence, perishing, and duration. The character of reality is therefore multi-faceted (anekanta).25 This character of reality determines its knowability: the reality can. be comprehended from a number of standpoints, perspectives or means of cognition (a number of nayas). This epistemological theory, then, represents "Jain attempts to conceptualize the
