Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 135

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VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. 1
and evaluation, will engage our attention. Pragmatism is a necessary and natural reaction against soaring idealism. The total absorption with the One Absolute in direct contempt of experience has every where in the world raised a revolt against its banner. Work-a-day people are confronted with various problems and wants and privations which can be satisfied by coming into close grip with the unpleasant reality. No amount of ratiocination and delivery of sermons on the unsubstantiality of the matter-of-fact world can hope to win over the masses. It must fail to afford consolation. The facile repudiation of plurality has produced unexpected reaction. The average people have suspected this extremistic bias for unity as wild chase for the will o'-the-wisp. These abstractions of philosophy are creatures of unpositivism. The so-called universals from the summum genus to the infima species are simply rejected as non-sense. Practical utility is made the sole test of truth. One requires milk for his nourishment and that of his children and for that purpose acquires a cow. The cow-universal does not give any practical result. One requires a pen for writing a letter and does not bother about penhood. So all common concepts and universals are thrown to the wind. The ideal of heaven and hell, hope of survival after death and all the wherewithal of the professional custodian of religion are suspect to him. Whatever satisfies a practical need is deemed real. The practical man does not want to be duped by the promises of eternal heaven and gets down to grapple with hard facts of the world. Science to him is valuable only in so far as it satisfies the needs of the flesh. If this attitude can be given a philosophical label, it may be called particularism and pragmatism of the gross variety. It does not care to build a system of thought which may beguile a contemplative man. No doubt this is an extremistic attitude and encourages philistinism. The poor man will prefer the path of least resistance to enrich himself by despoiling the rich. This weakness of the animal in man is now being exploited by the communistic creed. So long as poverty stalks the world and the majority of people are averse to hard labour and planned enterprise, the preoccupation with particulars and details will make culture an object of hatred. This attitude has been dubbed as behaviouristic and pragmatic approach (vyavaharanaya).
This love of particular facts with a view to satisfying the elemental needs is not worthy of condemnation, provided it keeps an open mind to values which may not have an immediate tangible result. The thinking mind will not be satisfied with the rule of thumb. One may not have felt the urge of higher values-intellectual, moral, aesthetic and spiritual-and find his preoccupation with food, drink and clothing