Modern science has made tremendous progress in a few hundred years. Our quest for an understanding of the universe and life itself has revealed an immense complexity encompassing reality as we experience it. This disillusionment has challenged our ancient belief systems and compelled us to reconsider our faith and our philosophy. Any scientific progress, however, is impossible without conflicts. Though we all tend to take scientific research for granted, believing it to be purely empirical, for any great revolution in science you need a very consistent contradiction of faith and this we learn from the 19th C. German philosopher Friedrich Hegel. ‘Dialectics’ Hegel insisted that knowledge is a very dynamic process. Philosophers like Socrates believed firmly in arguments. Any true knowledge is an outcome of oppositions. Hegel’s dialectical method emphasized on three aspects of logic- thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.
The non-objective nature of science Hegel believed that science in itself can’t be an absolute objective truth. The truth can only be arrived at through consistent subjective narratives, which often clash. Any object in itself cannot have a defined symmetry unless there is an observation made. Therefore, unless there is a counter-narrative for an original proposition of the object, there can’t be an evolution of knowledge about the object. This complicated machinery of thought is what Hegel assumed to be at the root of any scientific or epistemological progress. Modern science has only helped to strengthen his argument. Quantum theory has deconstructed reality to an array of probabilities. This fundamental uncertainty has implications in all branches of scientific knowledge, even in biology. Therefore, to truly grasp the essence of any scientific truth there is a very basic need for a healthy criticism of any empirical proposition. For every thesis, we need an antithesis. To every narrative, there has to be a counter-narrative. The road to science is not a straight one. It is filled with contradiction and paradoxes. It must be. Truth never comes in packages, it is always scattered. The attempt of any scientific or philosophical search has to be a reconciliation of these ‘half-truths’. "There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits." ~Karl Marx
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“साधो, देखो जग बौराना । साँची कही तो मारन धावै, झूठे जग पतियाना ।“ (O saint! See the world going mad. If you say the truth, they are prepared to kill you, liars become heroes here.) Who was Kabir? A mystic? A Sufi? An enlightened being? Kabir said - The self forgets itself, as a lion jumps into the pond seeing its own reflection. More important perhaps is his story. A man born into a Muslim family accepts a Hindu guru and later discovers a path that is independent of both the sects or any sect whatsoever. At a time when secular ideologies are being threatened and a politics of color is gripping the country, the verses of Kabir and his life itself has to become a message for all of us. The west discovered him at a time when Rumi and Shams were being immigrated from Persia with their message of cosmic love. For us, however, Kabir has gradually turned into a distant voice, cocooned into the image of an enigmatic teacher, and often a holy ‘messenger’ – the very idea that he repelled. “The river that flows in you also flows in me. We are one and the same.” Kabir’s philosophy is that of an existentialist who believes in the sanctity of this life, this existence. “If you don't break your ropes while you're alive, do you think ghosts will do it after?” Kabir resonates with us. In a world shattering itself into pieces – religions, sects, ideologies, Kabir reunites us with the inner self. The self that is accountable for things and the self that has the power to change. बुरा जो देखन मैं चला, बुरा न मिलिया कोई। जो मन खोजा अपना, तो मुझसे बुरा न कोई।। (As I searched for the devil, I didn’t find one. As I looked within me, I found that I was the evilest of all.) Kabir asks us to retrospect. To break free of this carnival of dead emotions and hero worship. To seek the truth that is beyond any -ism or divided ideologies. His message is simple – as timeless has his legacy – the message of the inner truth, the self, the wonder of this life. Nothing else matters. “O Slave, liberate yourself. Where are you, and where's your home, find it in your lifetime, man. If you fail to wake up now, you'll be helpless when the end comes. Says Kabir, listen, O wise one, the siege of Death is hard to withstand.” The Indian Ocean is one of India’s most vibrant music bands that has chosen to sustain itself in relative obscurity. In a country where pop music and love songs are dramatically overrated, this group of old school ‘boys’ have created a niche of their own. Their music is a protest in itself - an alternative platform for voicing issues of the left ideologies. It talks about the philosophy and politics of life and we need their kind of music today more than any other time. A tribute to their passion. Here’s an extract from their hit song Bandeh from Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday – Arey mandir ye chup hai, arey masjid ye gumsum Ibadat thak padegi Samay ki laal andhi, kabristan ke raste Arey lathpat chalegi.. (The temple and the mosque, both are silent, Their worships exhausted. The red waves of time shall crush the morgue And the bloody path will be lit...) |
About Me
Rajit Roy
An existential romantic, an agnostic and a prospective biologist. Archives
September 2018
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