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CIRCULARITY IN THE INDUCTIVE JUSTIFICATION OF FORMAL ARGUMENTS (TARKA) IN TWELFTH CENTURY INDIAN JAINA LOGIC
Douglas Dunsmore Daye
1. Introduction
In this Article I shall examine first the Jaina concept of tarka which constitutes a rational justification for the legitimacy of logical concomitance (vyapti) a necessary condition for the Jaina inference schema (pararthānumāna, inference-schema-for -other). Second, I shall show that to perform such justification one must presuppose the reliability of an implicit theory of inductive logic or at least some significant inductive rules. Third, I shall show that the justification for such formulations involves the old philosophical problem of generating dependable universal-warrant statements which expresses the concomitance (vyapti) of two properties ( dharma(s)) such that the individual is thus authorized by the warrant and the implicit metalanguage rules to draw the conclusion; this is justified by appeal to a warrant in a manner somewhat akin to the function of the Rule of Detachment in modern logic, but with signi ficant differences. Fourth, I shall very briefly illustrate that such activities are somewhat analogous with some contemporary discussions of the justification of inductive arguments. However what is most important here, and which to my knowledge has not been made clear before, is that tarka is used in two nonmutually exclusive senses: (1) tarka as a theory which is circular and presupposes various theoretical levels of rules; that is, to justify a warrant-dṛṣṭānta one must pre
This article previously appeared in Philosophy East and West 29, No. 2, April 1979. SP-14
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