Philosophy In Jain Agams: Non-Absolutism and Realism

The non-absolutism and the nayavāda (point-of-viewism) are prominent factors in the Jain concept of valid cognition (Pramāṇa-Mīmānsā). The Vedantist and Buddhist philosophers do not accept the relativity and nayavāda and thus they are viewed as idealist philosophers from Jain perspective. Realist philosophies accept relativity completely or partially in some shape or form. For instance, Sānkhya philosophy is a realist philosophy and it accepts puruṣa's eternal existence. However, it accepts the puruṣa's nature as absolutely non-transformative and prakṛti is with intrinsic transformations. Here, in a way Sānkhya philosophy accepts non-absolutism to some extent.^[1] The word Anekānt itself is used in Pūrva Mīmānsā, which indicates its acceptance of this philosophical concept.^[2] Thus it can be said that there is a universal concomitance between non-absolutism and realism. That's why non-absolutist Jain philosophy is also a realist philosophy. One thing is for certain that even amongst realist philosophies, nowhere do we find such a systematic presentation of anekānt as we find in Jain philosophy.