Two Uses of Anekāntavāda

Abstract

The thesis I will present is that, whatever its exact origins, the anekāntavāda was primarily (though not exclusively) used for two purposes: (1) to solve the “paradox of causality”, and (2) to classify non-Jaina systems of thought. The earliest texts in which the doctrine occurs present it as a solution to the paradox of causality. Only later do we find its use to classify non-Jaina philosophies.