Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
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'Syadvada' of Jainism as well as Gandhi's concept of Truth we find a practical approach towards peaceful co-existence by respecting a different opinion or Truth. In the modern world, when on one side terrorism and fundamentalism has made life insecured, the political issues, leading to violence and killing of innocent people, the Relativistic approach not of destruction but discussion, not of fights and wars but respect and solution through compromise, has proved a need of the day.
I personally feel, in Indian philosophy there is Absolutism and (not versus) Relativism. Even the Absolutists accept the Relativity at an initial stage when there is ignorance and lack of knowledge. To them the ultimate position is Absolutism. On the other side even in Jainism, in state of transcendence or the soul in its perfection, one can prove Absolutism logically. Besides Relativism is always in relation to something which is fixed, unchanging and rock-solid. Relativism is a lower stage and Absolutism is a higher stage. The realisation of Absolute Truth requires higher degree of knowledge; for common people the Relative Truth is possible with the limitations of the sensuous knowledge. Arguments and counter arguments are seen in Indian philosophy between the two groups but the place of Truth as the highest power is accepted by all the schools.
PART-III
Conclusion: Having gone through a long journey of Absolutism and Relativism, both, in East as well as in West, from ancient period till postmodern period, we have found some of the following important features of this never ending battle.
Though all the groups, at all times, in east as well as in west, have accepted the Truth as a dominating power in our life and even in our lifeafter-life (for these who believe in it), we found both, absolutists and relativists have engaged very actively to refute the other.
Second, one of the major discussions about Truth in the 19th century was more regarding Truth with reference to Faith, Conviction, and Reason. It was William Clifford, who is remembered in philosophy mainly for one classic essay, 'The Ethics of Belief and that in return is famous because of the reply to it by the American philosopher William James. The issue of Faith, without ignoring Reason, known as 'genuine faith' and the faith without reason as blind faith, lead to discussion about 'right to belief, 'will to believe and belief out of 'forced-option' etc.,ofcourse, these have not been included here to stick to Absolute and Relative aspects only.
Third, we find the Absolutists are having a religious temperament but religious life can be full of doubts and worry, and in the today's world we find even the Relativists belonging to the same cults. Activists are not merely suffering from a religious ambition, they want Communion with a higher
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