ABSTRACT
As I have noted on earlier occasions, there are two very ancient streams of Indian thought: spiritualistic and naturalistic. The naturalistic stream finds systemization in two major systems, namely, the Vais´es.ika and the Jaina. Both developed naturalistic theories of the external world, but combined it with a non-naturalistic theory of the human soul, which may be called “spiritualistic eschatology.” This combination of naturalism and non-naturalism is a uniquely interesting feature of Indian thought. The two additional systems in which naturalism survives in some form are Buddhism and the Sa¯m. khya. In this chapter, we will turn our attention to Jainism.
