Science and Creativity
I have repeatedly said that the means of solving India's ( and indeed the world's ) massive problems is science.
What is science ? Science is that knowledge by which we understand nature ( the object of the natural sciences ) or human society ( the object of the social sciences ), and utilize that knowledge for our benefit.
In India, science was represented in ancient times by the Nyaya philosophy, and its companion, the Vaisheshik, both of which belong to the shatdarshanas or 6 classical schools of Indian philosophy ( see my speech ' Sanskrit as a language of Science ' delivered in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, online or on my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in and on the website kgfindia.com ).
According to the Nyaya philosophy, nothing is acceptable unless it is in accordance with reason and experience. True knowledge arises through the fo
ur pramanas ( means of acquiring true knowledge ).
Of these four, the pradhan pramana or main source of acquiring true knowledge is pratyaksha, or knowledge arising through the 5 senses.
But pratyaksha ( direct perception ) can also sometimes lead to false knowledge, e.g. we may see water at a distance, but it may be a mirage. So correct knowledge may not always come from simple observation or cognition. We have to also apply anuvyavasaya, i.e. testing by reason, as in a cross examination, what we have observed, to acquire true knowledge.
Apart from pratyaksha there are also other pramanas. The second pramana is anumana pramana ( logical inference or qayas ) e.g. where there is smoke there is fire. We may not be able to see the fire, and so there is no pratyaksha, but we can infer it from the smoke.
Anumana is also an extremely important source of knowledge. Rutherford never saw an atom with his eyes, but he understood its structure by inference by the scattering of alpha rays ( helium ions ) when directed at a gold foil. Nobody has seen a black hole ( because it is so dense that light cannot escape from it due its gravitational pull ), but we can infer its existence and position by the movements of neighbouring heavenly bodies.
Shabda pramana means a statement of an expert, and this is also a means of acquiring knowledge. For example we know that e=mc2, not by our own reasoning, but because it has been said so by Einstein, who is a reputed physicist, and we believe him, though we may not ourselves understand how he arrived at that formula. Similarly, a doctor is a medical expert, so we believe his diagnosis. In school we accept what our teacher tells us.
The fourth pramana is analogy ( upama ). But the last three pramanas are ulltimately dependant on the first, that is pratyaksha or direct perception.
The Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy gave tremendous theoretical support to the growth of science in ancient India, and to our great scientists like Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, Charak, Sushruta, Bhaskar, Varahmir, etc
In Europe modern science begins with Copernicus ( 1473-1543 )., who in his book ' On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres ' said that it is the earth which goes around the sun, and not the sun around the earth.
This was an excellent application of what would be called ' anuvyavasaya ' in Nyaya philosophy.
By simple observation we see that the sun seems to go around the earth, as it arises in the east, goes up in the day, and sets in the west. But the principle of anuvyavasaya says that correct knowledge is not always obtained by simple observation. To obtain correct knowledge, the observation has to be tested by reasoning.
So Copernicus ( and long before him, Aryabhatta ) reasoned that we would observe the same phenomenon ( of the sun arising in the east, going up in the sky in the day, and setting in the west ) if the earth was rotating on its axis. Hence he concluded that the earth was going around the sun, and not the sun around the earth.
Today we take this reasoning for granted. But for the medeival world it was blasphemy It shook the Jacob's ladder which faith had built between angels and men, and the belief of men for 2000 years. It transformed a geocentric and anthropocentric universe into a kaleidoscope of stars and planets in which the earth seemed only a speck. It changed everything--distances, significances, destinies. And God, who had been close by, and who seemed to inhabit the clouds, disappeared into the far reaches of an infinite space,
This reasoning required a tremendous flight of imagination for those times, especially when this new and revolutionary idea was totally contrary to the seemingly time tested theory of Ptolemy, endorsed by the Bible. It required creative thinking of the highest order.
With Copernicus the modern age begins. With him, secularism begins. With him reason delivers a smashing blow to faith immemorially enthroned, and man begins his long journey to rebuild with science the shattered world of his fantasies.
Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Maxwell, Planck, Einstein,Bohr Heisenberg, etc were similary later scientists who defied conventional 'wisdom' and allowed their minds to soar, using their creative thinking
I may take a recent example.The wave-particle duality in nature, which says that particles can be perceived as waves, and waves as particles, is a striking illustration showing how science tries to penetrate appearances and go behind the world of our ordinary experience to understand the truth.
As is well known, Newton believed in the corpuscular theory of light ( that is, light travels as a shower of particles ) while Huygens believed in the wave theory, that is, light travels as waves. Subsequently the work and equations in electro-magnetism of the British scientist Clerk Maxwell seemed to support Huygens theory. However, later the Quantum theory of Max Planck seemed to support Newton's theory, and Einstein's research of photo electric cells supported Planck's theory.
But still later Louis de Broglie propounded his theory that particles can be perceived as waves. This was later vindicated by experiments as it was found that particles exhibited the same features as waves, that is, they undergo diffraction, interference and polarization.
Rutherford had established his model of the atom, somewhat like a solar system with a positively charged nucleus at the centre, and negatively charged electrons orbiting it. Niels Bohr postulated that the electrons could move only in certain definite orbits, otherwise they would radiate energy and crash into the nucleus. And it was left to Schrodinger to establish that an electron would not radiate energy if its orbit consists of an integral number of de Broglie wave lengths.
While for ordinary experience Newton's physics would do, it breaks down at the micro level and at speeds approaching the speed of light. Then Einstein's Special and General Theories of Relativity apply.
Today the situation is that while we have made progress in the natural sciences, we have yet to solve the problems of poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, lack of healthcare and good education for over 75% of the world's population, including over 75% population of India's population. These problems cannot be solved by knowledge of the laws of natural sciences, but of those of those of the social sciences. It is to these problems that we have now to principally address, and to solve them will require tremendous effort and all our creativity
I have repeatedly said that the means of solving India's ( and indeed the world's ) massive problems is science.
What is science ? Science is that knowledge by which we understand nature ( the object of the natural sciences ) or human society ( the object of the social sciences ), and utilize that knowledge for our benefit.
In India, science was represented in ancient times by the Nyaya philosophy, and its companion, the Vaisheshik, both of which belong to the shatdarshanas or 6 classical schools of Indian philosophy ( see my speech ' Sanskrit as a language of Science ' delivered in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, online or on my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in and on the website kgfindia.com ).
According to the Nyaya philosophy, nothing is acceptable unless it is in accordance with reason and experience. True knowledge arises through the fo
ur pramanas ( means of acquiring true knowledge ).
Of these four, the pradhan pramana or main source of acquiring true knowledge is pratyaksha, or knowledge arising through the 5 senses.
But pratyaksha ( direct perception ) can also sometimes lead to false knowledge, e.g. we may see water at a distance, but it may be a mirage. So correct knowledge may not always come from simple observation or cognition. We have to also apply anuvyavasaya, i.e. testing by reason, as in a cross examination, what we have observed, to acquire true knowledge.
Apart from pratyaksha there are also other pramanas. The second pramana is anumana pramana ( logical inference or qayas ) e.g. where there is smoke there is fire. We may not be able to see the fire, and so there is no pratyaksha, but we can infer it from the smoke.
Anumana is also an extremely important source of knowledge. Rutherford never saw an atom with his eyes, but he understood its structure by inference by the scattering of alpha rays ( helium ions ) when directed at a gold foil. Nobody has seen a black hole ( because it is so dense that light cannot escape from it due its gravitational pull ), but we can infer its existence and position by the movements of neighbouring heavenly bodies.
Shabda pramana means a statement of an expert, and this is also a means of acquiring knowledge. For example we know that e=mc2, not by our own reasoning, but because it has been said so by Einstein, who is a reputed physicist, and we believe him, though we may not ourselves understand how he arrived at that formula. Similarly, a doctor is a medical expert, so we believe his diagnosis. In school we accept what our teacher tells us.
The fourth pramana is analogy ( upama ). But the last three pramanas are ulltimately dependant on the first, that is pratyaksha or direct perception.
The Nyaya Vaisheshik philosophy gave tremendous theoretical support to the growth of science in ancient India, and to our great scientists like Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, Charak, Sushruta, Bhaskar, Varahmir, etc
In Europe modern science begins with Copernicus ( 1473-1543 )., who in his book ' On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres ' said that it is the earth which goes around the sun, and not the sun around the earth.
This was an excellent application of what would be called ' anuvyavasaya ' in Nyaya philosophy.
By simple observation we see that the sun seems to go around the earth, as it arises in the east, goes up in the day, and sets in the west. But the principle of anuvyavasaya says that correct knowledge is not always obtained by simple observation. To obtain correct knowledge, the observation has to be tested by reasoning.
So Copernicus ( and long before him, Aryabhatta ) reasoned that we would observe the same phenomenon ( of the sun arising in the east, going up in the sky in the day, and setting in the west ) if the earth was rotating on its axis. Hence he concluded that the earth was going around the sun, and not the sun around the earth.
Today we take this reasoning for granted. But for the medeival world it was blasphemy It shook the Jacob's ladder which faith had built between angels and men, and the belief of men for 2000 years. It transformed a geocentric and anthropocentric universe into a kaleidoscope of stars and planets in which the earth seemed only a speck. It changed everything--distances, significances, destinies. And God, who had been close by, and who seemed to inhabit the clouds, disappeared into the far reaches of an infinite space,
This reasoning required a tremendous flight of imagination for those times, especially when this new and revolutionary idea was totally contrary to the seemingly time tested theory of Ptolemy, endorsed by the Bible. It required creative thinking of the highest order.
With Copernicus the modern age begins. With him, secularism begins. With him reason delivers a smashing blow to faith immemorially enthroned, and man begins his long journey to rebuild with science the shattered world of his fantasies.
Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Maxwell, Planck, Einstein,Bohr Heisenberg, etc were similary later scientists who defied conventional 'wisdom' and allowed their minds to soar, using their creative thinking
I may take a recent example.The wave-particle duality in nature, which says that particles can be perceived as waves, and waves as particles, is a striking illustration showing how science tries to penetrate appearances and go behind the world of our ordinary experience to understand the truth.
As is well known, Newton believed in the corpuscular theory of light ( that is, light travels as a shower of particles ) while Huygens believed in the wave theory, that is, light travels as waves. Subsequently the work and equations in electro-magnetism of the British scientist Clerk Maxwell seemed to support Huygens theory. However, later the Quantum theory of Max Planck seemed to support Newton's theory, and Einstein's research of photo electric cells supported Planck's theory.
But still later Louis de Broglie propounded his theory that particles can be perceived as waves. This was later vindicated by experiments as it was found that particles exhibited the same features as waves, that is, they undergo diffraction, interference and polarization.
Rutherford had established his model of the atom, somewhat like a solar system with a positively charged nucleus at the centre, and negatively charged electrons orbiting it. Niels Bohr postulated that the electrons could move only in certain definite orbits, otherwise they would radiate energy and crash into the nucleus. And it was left to Schrodinger to establish that an electron would not radiate energy if its orbit consists of an integral number of de Broglie wave lengths.
While for ordinary experience Newton's physics would do, it breaks down at the micro level and at speeds approaching the speed of light. Then Einstein's Special and General Theories of Relativity apply.
Today the situation is that while we have made progress in the natural sciences, we have yet to solve the problems of poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, lack of healthcare and good education for over 75% of the world's population, including over 75% population of India's population. These problems cannot be solved by knowledge of the laws of natural sciences, but of those of those of the social sciences. It is to these problems that we have now to principally address, and to solve them will require tremendous effort and all our creativity
