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THE JAINA CONCEPT OF LOGIC
V. K. Bharadwaja
(1) One way of identifying the Jaina concept of logic and arriving at a level of clarity with regard to it is to inquire into how does a Jaina thinker reason things out when he is placed in a given situation. This approach would require us to specify the situation or situations in which he does this and also to outline the structure of reasoning pattern he adopts. Once we have done this, it would be posssible for us, I think, to be in a reasonably good position to say what the structure and function of Jaina logic is or how at least it is to be interpreted and understood keeping in view the Jaina tradition as we are acquainted with it through the vast Sanskrit literature available to us.
(2) By 'logic', I do not mean the formal logic the paradigm of which the modern, mathematical logic is. Nor do I mean by it what is traditionally known as inductive logic. By logic ' in the Jaina context, I mean three things taken together : One, the analysis of concepts like jñāna, pramā, vyāpti, and tarka and the methods of winning knowledge in the sense of having beliefs aboutthe world, the world of facts, the world of values, and the metaphysi cal world if there is one; and also the criteria developed and used
Earlier version of it was presented in the seminar on “Jain Philosophy and Modern Scientific Thought" (Poona University, 1979). Revised version was published in the Indian Philosophical Quarterly (July. 1982).
