The Truth

Author(s): O P Jain
Publisher: Veer Nirvan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 14

METHOD OF ENQUIRY
LOGIC, NAYAVADA, SYADVADA
2.1 The subject under study is very elusive and one is likely to develop it on weak premises. The enquiry must be made with the strictest logic. Bias and bigotry are subversive of truth and fanatical fervour destructive of reason itself. Private convictions and vague intuitions of individuals have also to be left out for the search to be scientific. All traces of superstition must be removed from the mind in order to qualify for the study of truth. We are so constituted that there is an overwhelming sub-conscious predisposition in us in favour of the faith in which we are born that unconsciously forces the most critical of us to reject, on the flimsiest ground, any hostile or seemingly hostile theory or fact. The burden of proof is very often thrown on the opponent even in defiance of reason and good sense. This is not the proper disposition of mind to discover the truth. Broadly speaking, the sources of knowledge are : (i) Observation (ii) Reflection, Meditation or Inference and (iii) Testimony. Observation is the foundation of science, inference is the basis of philosophy, while testimony, when it comes from an Omniscient Teacher is 'Scripture. In short, perfection of observation is science, perfection of inference is metaphysics and perfection of testimony is scripture. Metaphysics must always
remain in touch with concrete nature. Where science and metaphysics . do not agree on a point, the disagreement is generally due to the latter
having somewhere lost sight of the concrete reality. As for the criterion of truth, it is generally safe to lay down that where scicence and metaphysics agree, truth may be said to be established there. In the case of a rational religion, there is an additional safeguard which consists in its agreement with scriptures besides science and metaphysics. Hence philosophy may be defined as the science in which (i) facts are taken from nature, (ii) conclusions are checked by logic and (iii) final confirmation is sought in scripture i.e., the irrefutable word of an all knowing teacher. Science is used to get the laws of cause and effect. The chief instruments of philosophy are (i) logic i.e., inference, classification, analysis, and (ii) Nayavada, i.e., system of stand-points. Inference is the method of accurate deduction, classification, of accurate