________________
96 THE JAINA PHILOSOPHY
It is probably true, quite generally that in the history of human thinking the most fruitful developments frequently take place at those points where two different lines of thought meet These lines may have their roots in quite different parts of human culture in different times different environnients or different religious traditions hence if they do meet that is if they are at least so much related to each other that a real interaction can take place then one may hope that new, interesting and useful developments will follow The purpose of the following discussion cannot be to make predictions but it may be possible to define some points from which the interaction between the ideas of modern science and the older tradition may begin
METAPHYSICAL VIEW
We have already seen that the non-absolutist realism of the Jains neither endorses absolute eternalism nor absolute nihilism but explains both these extremes as real with reference to different aspects of the same reality Thus mutation (change) is as much real as permanence A substance is a substratum of infinite qualities Nothing can exist without being in some determinate way and the qualities of a substance means its existence in a determinate mode of being Thus, assert Jains, the qualities cannot be absolutely different from the substance nor can they be absolutely identical with it
We have also seen that matter (called pudgalāstıkāya' by them) is the only substance which can be the object of sensuous cognition At the same time we have seen that paramānu, the ultimate elementary particle of matter and some kinds of material aggre
2 W Heisenberg Physics and philosophy,
