The Greek philosopher Aristotle (~300 B.C.) is generally
considered to be the father of modern scientific approach. Aristotle
recommended observation, classification, and deduction of implications, as the
sole basis of understanding nature. Or in other words, he laid emphasis on
sense perception, objectivity, deduction, as we have today in our scientific
approach.
Even ancient Indians considered the same – sense perception (pratyaksa), deduction (anumäna) and valid testimony (äpta väkya) - as the basis of
understanding anything. But they added a rejoinder that "this approach is restricted
only to knowledge related to material things. When it comes to things that are
not material in nature, this approach does not work and one needs to resort to
knowledge attained in super conscious state or samädhi". The statements of a
person who has attained the said knowledge in such a state can be taken as
“valid testimony” though it is not based on sense perception.
This is often taken as an escape route to justify all mysterious
theories and explanations. In such cases we need to satisfy ourselves the
credentials of the persons propagating such theories and whether they are indeed capable of
transgressing the material limits. We need to be very careful before accepting
such claims since in most cases they are no “valid testimony” in the strictest
sense.
If it indeed turns out that such theories are true, then we need to expand the
scope of science to include such findings. Definitely not otherwise.
No comments:
Post a Comment