Perspective
A call for collaboration
Abstract
Among the various efforts of mankind to arrive at the truth of things, Science and Philosophy occupy special places. Both are efforts of reason to discover the truth. What is needed however is to realise the present limits of the human consciousness itself and thereby seek to go beyond our present limits.
Poetry is the precursor of philosophy. Philosophy is the application of mind to understand the mind, the individual and the universe. Earlier, philosophy and psychology were a single department in universities. Philosophy incubates fundamental questions and intellectually and mathematically speculates the answer. Many philosophers are mathematicians. Philosophy throws the same questions to science to prove empirically and experimentally. Science does that but solving one query opens scientifically insoluble queries and the scientist speculates and argues as a philosopher to answer and becomes a philosopher.
The question before science and philosophy are the same. But their means are different. But both land at more philosophy in the end. The ultimate question is the limit of human awareness or consciousness. At the end of the road of comprehension at least 40 Nobel Laureates started working out a model of human consciousness. Edelman gave the idea of immune memory, Crick located tubulin molecule as centre of consciousness and so on.
The greatest breakthrough in science will be an understanding of the limit of human consciousness and what exactly it is. Artificial Intelligence tools, mathematics, computation and neurosciences are most important for constructing a model of human awareness. Culture is uniquely a human phenomenon and not associated with any other species. Philosophers, men of art and culture, Sanskrit scholars, mathematicians, historians, technologists, medical physicians, particularly neuroscientists, should join the effort of unravelling human consciousness.
Dr. Anand Kumar is a retired professor and head of the Department of Reproductive Biology and Physiology at AIIMS, Delhi
Share with us (Comments,contributions,opinions)
When reproducing this feature, please credit NAMAH,and give the byline. Please send us cuttings.
