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Philosophy
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on the conception that a thing possesses infinite number of qualities and forms - ananta dharmātmakaṁ vastu ananta paryāyātmakam cha.
Based upon Anekāntavāda is the logical doctrine of Syādvāda of the Jains. The fundamental principle of Syādvāda is that both positive and negative predications may be done of the same thing. The affirmative predication about a thing is based upon four conditions - Svadravya, Svakshetra, Svakāla and Svabhāva. The assertion that 'this dish is made of silver" is affirmative predication from the point of view of svadrava and "not made of any other metal" is negative predication from the point of view paradravya. The Buddha died in Kushinagar is an affirmative predication from the point of view of svakshetra and "he did not die in Pătaliputra" is a negative predication from the point of view of parakshetra. Likewise, the predictions that "Mahatama Gandhi was killed in 1948" and "he was not killed in 1960" are positive and negative assertions from the points of view of svakāla and parakāla respectively. The same applies to svabhava and parabhava.
Thus, it is obvious that positive and negative predications are possible about the same thing from different points of views. The doctrine of Syādvāda is derived from this principle. According to this doctrine, there are seven forms of metaphysical propositions - asti, nâsti, astinăsti, avaktavyaṁ, asti-avakyavyaṁ, năsti-avaktavyaṁ and astinãsti avaktavyaṁ. Before every proposition the word syat is added which is explained as kathańchit i.e. 'some how'. Syat indicates indefiniteness of being and presupposes that propositions are based on the points of view of svadrabya, svakshetra, svakāla, svabhāva and paradravya, parakshetra, parakāla and parabhāva respectively. If both the aspects are to be expressed they should be placed one after the other - 'asti-năsti'. But if both affirmative and negative are to be expressed in the same predication it becomes inexpressible in language. Thus comes the fourth propositions avaktavyam. "By adding avaktaryaṁ to first
