Reconceptualising the Science and the Humanities – An Integral Approach: Neena Ranjan

by S.C. Malik New Delhi: Manohar

(Issued under the auspices of Nehru Memorial Museum And Library)

1995. 314pp. index, Rs. 300/-

Reviewed by

Neena Ranjan

Prof. S.C. Malik, a renowned anthropologist is developing multi-disciplinary research methodologies and formulating theoretical models for the study of Indian civilisation, especially evaluating epistemological foundations, lately within the framework of philosophical anthropology. He has studied at the Universities of Delhi, London and Baroda and been a Fulbright-Smith Mundt scholar at the University of Chicago 1963-65. Presently, he is a Professorial U.G.C. Research Scientist affiliated to the Centre for Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi.

The essays in this volume reveal why confidence in high technology now takes a nose-dive in the aftermath of great expectations of the Second World War. Then, humankind basked in the assurance of notions of progress on a global scale equated with high technology. These essays explore recent developments in the sciences and the humanities with an integral approach and suggests radical departures by presenting alternate paradigms to the consumeristic paradigm which governs humankind today. This reconceptualising is the only way a shift in life-styles can be brought about if we wish to avoid the disasters which are upon us in terms of ecological, socio-economic, psychological and spiritual crisis. For this, academic disciplines which mostly neglect the role of consciousness, must make it an integral part of all disciplines which study the human phenomenon.

Each chapter is governed by this overall context. However, the argument is not a linear sequential one, and in this sense each chapter is self-contained especially because the basic premise is that it is both the observer and the observed which have to be thoroughly understood at the particular and the universal level. Science itself is moving into metaphysics, converging well into mystical insights, an ancient speculative thought. The various themes of the book are: Civilisation Studies and Knowledge – A Holistic Approach: Rock Art – A Creative Act: Man in Nature – An Integral Universe; A Question of Consciousness; Science and Consciousness; Violence and Non-Violence – A Binary System: and Integral Listening as Communication.

 

 

 

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