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110 Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism
writers are in favour of establishing a distinction between conation and knowledge, but the difficulty arises as regards the identity and subject-matter of conation.
Meaning of Conation
The Jaina writers generally believe that conation always precedes knowledge. In other words every iota of knowledge must be grounded on conation immediately preceding it or by way of a chain of cognitions ultimately grounded on conation. Hence conation will mean the first psychic stage which determines the process of knowledge. Knowledge is also a continuity of the cognitive process having various stages; and the Jaina does not like to make conation a member in the cognitive process. Conation is determined by a different faculty of the soul, so it has its own identity distinct from that of knowledge. H.H. Price has observed: "Again from the side of the mind, the consciousness of a surface is but the first stage in the consciousness of a material object....Now this consciousness of the object is not acquaintance (as the consciousness of the red something is) nor is it any other kind of knowing. It is but provisional acceptance, partly determinate and partly indeterminate, and it is subject to correction throughout, it may well turn out that some or all these characteristics do not really belong to the object or even that it does not exist." Herbert Warren mentions that "before we know a thing in a detailed way, there is a stage where we simply see, hear, or otherwise become conscious of it in a general way without going into its ins and outs. We simply know it as belonging to a class. This is the first stage of knowledge. It may be called detailless knowledge or indefinite cognition. If this stage is not experienced, there can be no knowledge of the thing." Bradley also thinks: "What comes first in each of us is
2
1. H.H. Price: Perception, p. 106 2. H. Warren: Jainism, p. 29
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