Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 985

964
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
harmony with nature and at the same time permit the fullest degree of freedom of expression to human thought.
The absurdity resulting from the positing of negative elements as positive qualities in things may be further emphasized by treating the proposition under consideration as an affirmative judgment. The pot is notblack' should then give us some positive content of knowledge, since it is an affirmative judgment; but it is obvious that absolutely no information is implied in the statement, since not-black is devoid of all positive elements being applicable to a green pot as much as to one that is yellow, or brown or red. It is thus clear that the judgment, the pot is not black, is really a negative predication, meaning simply that with reference to black the pot is not. We might now endeavour to read it as black is not with reference to the pot; but it will be seen that it upsets the construction of the original judgment which we had set out to analyse, but not to recast. Besides this, if 'black' can be the nominative of a negative sentence it is difficult to see why 'pot' should not be.
Lastly, the conclusion that the pot is not black is reached by the mind only after it has compared it with the image of a black object furnished by the memory. Now, since the image of a black object is already present in the mind, the negative predication that would arise would naturally be with reference to the pot in which perception seeks but fails to find anything corresponding to the colour in the mind.
This suffices to establish the metaphysical validity of the negative judgment.
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