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therefore, seems to me to be in essence the qualitative (but not quantitative) aspect of the modern concept of probability. Used in a purely qualitative sense, the fourth category of predication in Jaina logic corresponds precisely to the meaning of probability which covers the possibility of (a) sometbing existing, (b) something not-existing, and (c) Sometimes existing and sometimes notexisting. The difference between Jaina "avaktavya" and "probability” lies in the fact that the latter (that is, the concept of probability) has definite quantitative implications namely, the recognition of numerical frequencies of occurrence of (1) “it is", or (2) "it is not", and hence in the recognition of relative numerical frequencies of the first two categories (of “it is" and it is not”) in a synthetic form. It is the explicit recognition of (and emphasis on the concept of numerical frequency ratios which distinguishes modern statistical theory from the Jaina theory of syadvada. At the same time it is of interest to note that 1500 or 2500 years ago syādvāda seems to have given the logical background of statistical theory in a qualitative form.
Secondly, I should like to draw attention to the Jaina view that "a real is a particular which possesses a generic attribute." This is very close to the concept of an individual in relation to the population to which it belongs. The Jaina view in fact denies the possibility of making any predication about a single and unique individual which would be also true in modern statistical theory.
The third point to be noted is the emphasis given in Jaina philosophy on the relatedness of things and on the multiform aspects of reals which appear to be similar (again in a purely qualitative sense) to the basic ideas underlying the concepts of association, correlation and concomitant variation in modern statistics.
The Jaina views of “existence, persistence, and cessation" as the fundamental characteristics of all that is real necessarily leads to a view of reality as something relatively permanent and relatively changing which has a favour of statistical reasoning.
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तुलसी प्रज्ञा
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