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Study of Jainism
the relevance of the doctrine of syadvada in understanding the foundations of statistics :
1) The fourth predication of syadvada-avaktavya or the 'indeterminate' seems to be in essence the qualitative (but not quantitative) aspect of the modern concept of probability.
2) The Jaina concept of the real as a particular which possesses the generic attribute is very close to the concept of an individual in relation to the population to which he belongs.
3) Jaina philosophy emphasises the relatedness of things and the multiform aspects of reals which appear to be similar to the basic ideas underlying concepts of association and correlation
4) The Jaina view of existence, persistence and cessation' as the fundamental characteristic of all that is real necessarily leads to a view of reality as something relatively permanent and yet relatively changing which has a flavour of statistical reasoning.
5) The important feature of Jaina logic is its insistence on the impossibility of absolutely certain predication and its emphasis on non-absolutist and relativist predication. “All predications have margin of uncertainty which is somewhat similar to the concept of “uncertain inference” in modern statistical theory. However, the Jaina view is essentially qualitative in this matter. Jainas rely on the data supplied by experience and show the inadequacy of formal logic.
I do not know whether it would be correct to say that the sevenfold predication implies 'margin of uncertainty', because every point of view, naya, does present a clear picture of thing though a partial picture,
J.B.S. Haldane, in the same issue of the journal Samkhya has applied the Jaina logical methodology of the seven-fold predication to the statistical analysis of the problems concerning the physiology of the sense organs.
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