Truthfullness and Truth in Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Peter Flugel
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan

Page 10

मार्च २०१०
१७५
instance on the independence and separateness of each individual element within a composite form of vegetation.48 The two ontological levels of the relationship between one and many can easily be mixed up in these cases; which has potential ethical (karmic) consequences. One of the principle concerns of the Pannavaņā, highlighted in Malayagiri's commentary, is the difference between the categories infinite (ananta) and uncountable (asamkhyāta).49 With regard to adhva, time, speech is both true and untrue if one says, for some reason, that “it is night during the daytime, or 'get up, it is day' when it is night. 50 The same applies to the part of a measure of time, or ardhādhva, such as a prahara, a quarter of the bright or dark period of the day. 51 The statements may be true in as much as time in general is concerned, but false with regard to time in particular (i.e. it may be bright, although technically it is still night). 52 Examples for a potential mix up of the modalities of time, which may have negative moral consequences in cases of promises for instance, are given in Āyāra 2.4.2, and in DVS 7.6-10 as paradigmatic cases for satyā-mrsā speech. The illocutionary form of these sentences is not essential, since they can be transformed into propositions of the form: ‘x promises (commands etc.), that p':53
6. Such speech therefore, as e.g. "we [shall] go”, "we shall say”, “we shall have to do that”, or: “I shall do that”, or “he shall do that”, 7. uncertain in the future or with regard to a matter of the present [or] of the past, a wise [monk] should avoid. 8.9. If [a monk] does not know, [or] has some doubt about, a matter which concerns past, present and future, he should not say: “it is thus”; 10. (this he should do only) when there is no room for doubt' (DVS. 7.6–10).54
Somadeva, in his Yaśastilaka of 959 CE (YT, p. 349– 350), mentions a similar example of a statement which is on the whole true but to some extent false, that is, when someone
28 D:\SHEELANUSANDHANIANU-50