Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s7.t8.56

v1.c7.s7.t8.56

Epistemologically, Jainism proposed a seven-fold judgment theory, positing that things could be judged as falling under either of the following seven categories: existent; non-existent; existent-cum-nonexistent; indescribable; existent and indescribable; non-existent and indescribable; and, existent-cum-non-existent and indescribable. It also held that things are subject to constant change, and due to the fact that things are diverse in terms of location, time and attribute, word Syät (“probable”, “perhaps”, “maybe”) shall be prefixed to each of these seven predications to prevent the proposition from being absolute. A fairly representative Jain work on this theory is *Syadavamanjari* by Malisena (around 13th century CE).