Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies: Vol. 14 Jainism – By Karl H. Potter (Author) – MLBD Publications

Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies in 28 volumes is an endeavor by an international team of scholars, led by Prof. Karl Potter (General Editor), to present the contents of Indian philosophical texts to a wider public than has hitherto been possible. It attempts to provide a definitive summary of current knowledge about each of the systems of classical Indian philosophy. Each volumes consists of an extended analytical essay together with summaries of every extant work of the system, a Bibliography, and a Glossary. Various volumes include treatments of Nyaya-Vaisesika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purvamimamsa, various Vedanta systems and certain philosophically important sects of Saivism and Vaisnavism, as well as Jain and Buddhist philosophy. So far 14 volumes have been published in this series.

This Volume covers Jaina philosophy from where Volume Ten left off toward the end of the tenth century. It summarizes 355 works of 99 Jain philosophers who lived between 1000 and 1300 A.D. The name of a number of famous Jaina authors are covered in the list along with summaries of many of their works.

Piotr Balcerowicz article on the Jaina theory of viewpoints or perspective (naya), which introduces this Volume, shows how the most singificant and intriguing Jaina contribution to the Indian philosophical heritage is beyond doubt the theory of the multiple aspects of reality (anekantavada), which is developed into a method of four standpoints (niksepa, nyasa), of sevenfold modal description (saptabhangi, syadvada), and the doctrine of viewpoints (naya), i.e., the sevenfold method of conditionally valid predictions. At the same time no other Jaina concept has fanned so much controversy as the idea that one and the same sentence can be either true or false, which seems implied by the admission of the reality of these multiple aspects.