MATERIAL FOR THIS ENTRY AND THE PREVIOUS ONE WAS LARGELY DRAWN FROM :
1. The Western Intellectual Tradition By J. Bronowski and Bruce Mazlish
2. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
Such a transformation was not always easy. The Church hindered the progress and dissemination of scientific ideas. Galileo’s case is not the only instance. The works of many philosophers like Voltaire, Rousseau and Descartes were banned by the Church. It was not only Christianity but other religions too victimized heretical thinkers. Baruch Spinoza, a Jew, was excommunicated in 1656 for being a religious and political liberal. Even in the 20th C philosophers like Bertrand Russell were victimized for their views. And the case of Salman Rushdie who was condemned to death by certain Muslim clerics is still fresh in our memories.
It will be interesting to recount the impact of science on the social fabric of our own country. You just have to read accounts by various travelers to the 18th and 19th C India to realize what a bleak place it was. Young widows were burnt on their dead husband’s pyre. Child marriages, child sacrifices and untouchability were the bane of India. Infant mortality was high and the absence of hygiene and sanitary practices in our country’s towns and villages made diseases like typhoid, cholera, plague and hepatitis rampant. Superstition and blind beliefs led to much human suffering which could be prevented. Over a period of time, with advances in science and technology, there has been a vast change and things are still changing. The average life-expectancy has risen. Improved methods of agriculture have seen to increase agricultural production many fold. The fabric of the society is more equitable, though much remains to be done. The practice of untouchability is punishable. Women, who were earlier being consigned to the four walls of the kitchen have now become a strong work-force and are actively contributing to the economy.
While strongly acknowledging these changes that science has wrought, I would like to speak a word of caution. In trying to understand the world around them, humans employ two main methods. These can be broadly classified as Classical understanding and Romantic understanding. CLASSICAL understanding sees the world primarily as underlying FORM. ROMANTIC understanding sees it primarily in terms of immediate APPEARANCE. Science largely issues from the former and art from the latter. While both forms of understanding are essential for human progress, the overwhelming dominance of Classical understanding over Romantic understanding is a cause for some worry and introspection and such an unequal development may even be an impediment to Human progress.
The Romantic saw a universal intelligence which created the sparkling Sun. It created the Moon, the call of the mother, the reeds in the lake, the daisies and the white dove. The Classicist busied himself gaining knowledge. He reduced a fragrant flowering tree to Michaelia champaka. A leaf is not just green. It is green because of chlorophyll. To the Romantic the moon was perhaps made of cheese. Now we know it is made of basalts. “Is there a man on the moon?” the children would ask in wonderment. Now they know Neil Armstrong was there. The magic of touch-me-nots, which close themselves in salutation to a man’s touch, for he is the only animal who has the consciousness to marvel at it, now shuts itself because water is expelled from one crucial part of the flower to another. The magic has been removed from creation and creation has lost its value. As Georg Lucacs says “Man has been rendered TRANSCENDENTALLY HOMELESS”.
The Classical mode which generates science, by itself, is dull, awkward, ugly. Nothing is figured out until it is run through a computer a dozen times. Everything is in terms of pieces and parts and components and relationships. Everything has to be measured and proved. Everything is oppressive, heavy, dull and endlessly grey. The Romantic mode is primarily inspirational, imaginative, creative and intuitive. It provides value for the Human circumstance. It generates art. It does not proceed by reason or by laws. It proceeds by feelings, intuition and aesthetic conscience! Is Newton more beneficial to humanity or is Shakespeare? The answer is both are equals. Both the Classicist and the Romantic are needed for the advancement of the human spirit. The Classicist is needed for the advancement of science and reason and progress, while the Romantic is needed to give value to the Classicist discoveries. Without the former there would be no understanding and without the latter there would be no meaning. Science and Arts are both important for human progress.
The overwhelming importance that man is giving to science may be causing this world to be a very bleak place for him. It has engendered man to think of his predicament as is widely reflected in modern (20th C) art and literature. ‘A Clockwork Orange’ could very well be the world of the near future. Franz Kafka’s works amply emphasize the fears and trepidations that a modern man faces in a contemporary world. The concepts of the ‘Absurd’, ‘Alienation’ and ‘Outsider’ dealt with by many modern European novelists talk of the tragedy of the human situation. The dichotomy between ‘LIFE’ and ‘MEANING’ has crept in. Many say that Science and Technology cause it! We pay for knowledge with alienation.
My call this day is that we should re-establish man’s home in the knowledge of the external world he has. Intuitive modes of interpreting the world should also be given its due importance as they may offer guidelines to govern human conduct and behaviour. Religious systems derived from mystical experiences have to be tempered and modulated with the knowledge derived from science and a firm basis for an ethical and moral world should be established, in which we, our children, and their children can live without fear.
The importance that need to be given to emotions and feelings is stressed in this TED TALK by David Brooks (Please Click on the link below ) :
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_brooks_the_social_animal.html
xxx
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