Jainism (Syetvada/Anekantavada)
from 550 BCE c.
Reality has more aspects than any single statement can capture, so every assertion is true only from a standpoint — and violence begins with forgetting that.
- Active
- from 550 BCE
- Where
- Magadha, then western and southern India
- Also
- जैन दर्शन
- Status
- living
- Tradition
- Indian
The claim
Anekantavada: reality is many-sided. Syadvada: every claim must be qualified by in some respect. Ahimsa: non-violence, extended to thought — dogmatism is a form of harm.
What it held
Jain epistemology begins with a claim about limits. Any object has infinite aspects; any finite mind grasps some of them; so any assertion, however true, is partial. This is not relativism — the object is definite and the aspects are real — but it makes unqualified assertion always an overstatement.
The sevenfold predication follows: a thing is, is not, is and is not, is inexpressible, and three combinations. Each is prefixed by syat, in some respect. Rival schools found this maddening and accused it of saying everything and nothing; Jains replied that the alternative is to mistake your standpoint for the whole.
The blind men and the elephant is a Jain parable, and its point is usually missed. It is not that nobody knows anything. Each man is right about what he touched. The error is in the word only.
The metaphysics is a dualism of jiva and ajiva, with karma understood as a fine physical substance that adheres to the soul and weighs it down. And the ethics follows with unusual rigour: if karma is matter accumulated by action, then minimising harm is literally minimising accumulation.
How it argued
Standpoint analysis — nayavada — which specifies from which perspective a claim is being made, combined with the sevenfold qualified predication.
What it was arguing against
Buddhist momentariness and Vedantic permanence alike, on the grounds that both take one aspect of a thing for the whole of it.
Where it disagreed with itself
Whether syadvada is a logic or an evasion, which every rival school pressed. The Digambara and Svetambara split over monastic clothing and over whether women can attain liberation.
Common misconceptions
That anekantavada means all views are equally true. It means every view is partial, which is a different and stronger claim — and Jains argued vigorously that some views are wrong.
How it began
Mahavira, a contemporary of the Buddha, presented as the twenty-fourth in a line of teachers rather than as a founder — a claim the tradition takes seriously and historians treat cautiously.
What became of it
Living, with roughly four to five million adherents, and an unbroken monastic and philosophical tradition.
Lasting influence
Gandhi's ahimsa is Jain in its extension and rigour, and he said so. Jain merchants and scholars preserved manuscript libraries that are among the most important in India.
Why it still matters
The claim that dogmatic assertion is itself a kind of violence is not made anywhere else with this precision, and it is an argument rather than a sentiment.
Put another way
Six blind men and an elephant, each right about what he touched and wrong about the word only.
Where to start
The Tattvartha Sutra in translation. It is short and it is what Jains themselves start from.
The surprising bit
Jain logic includes a truth value for the inexpressible — cases where a thing both is and is not in the same respect, and where the tradition holds that no assertion can be made at all.
In their own words
Non-violence is the highest religion.
A thing is, in some respect.
Connections
- Opposed by
- Ajīvika school, Carvaka (Lokayata)
- Parallel to
- Early Theravada Buddhism
The verdict
The tradition that made epistemic humility a formal logic and a moral requirement at once.