Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism

Author(s): S C Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 63

The Doctrine of Syādvāda or The Jaina Dialectic :: 59
lost.” Starting from opposites Hegel attains unity by rising to higher system where the opposites are supposed to exist but they do not oppose each other. If opposition is absolutely abandoned by the opposites, they must lose their existence, as the aforesaid critic mentions. Such a position becomes inevitable, if absolute unity is meant. Hence to obtain unity and difference simultaneously the position must be interpreted in the non-absolute way of the Jaina, or the charge against Hegel must stand.
Merit of the Jaina Dialectic
The great merit of the Jaina philosophy of non-absolutism lies in the fact that it is able to maintain the truth of the opposite elements like unity and multiplicity in a consistent manner. It establishes its truth not by rejecting the partial views about reality but by taking all of them into consideration. The partial comprehensions, so far as they approach reality, are held to be true, but they are unable to give us a full picture of reality. "The only thing the Jaina dislikes in other thinkers is the dogmatic claim of each that he alone is in the right. The claim amounts to a fallacy of exclusive predication (ekāntavāda)."2 The Taina does not simply uphold a spirit of easy and illogical compromise among the differení views, but fully agrees with what has been said of K.Ç. Bhattācarya. D.M. Datta recognizes the merit of Bhattacarya's philosophy as “his superiority lies not in demolishing the views of others, but in being able to work out their unknown and unthought of implications, showing them at their best, and assigning them a place among the many possible alternate views which would make partisans voluntarily give up all airs of selfsufficiency." And to achieve this aim the Jaina effects a
1. P.T. Raju: Thought and Reality, p. 80 2. Chatterjee and Datta: An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, p. 93 3. D.M. Datta: Contemporary Philosophy, p. 124
ional