syādvāda, in Jaina metaphysics, the doctrine that all judgments are conditional, holding good only in certain conditions, circumstances, or senses, expressed by the word syāt (Sanskrit: “may be”). The ways of looking at a thing (called naya) are infinite in number.
The Jainas hold that to interpret experience from only one naya, or point of view, to the exclusion of others is an error comparable to that of the seven blind men feeling an elephant, each of whom concluded that the part he was holding represented the elephant’s true form. The relative pluralism of this position is implicit in the Jaina doctrine of anekāntavāda, or the “many-sidedness of reality.” According to this doctrine, all statements can be judged as true or not true or as both true and not true and thus inexpressible, depending on the point of view. The combinations of these possibilities can be stated in seven logical alternatives called saptabhaṅgī.