New Perspectives in Indian Science and Civilization

This book examines key aspects of the history, philosophy, and culture of science in India, especially as they may be comprehended in the larger idea of an Indian civilization. The authors, drawn from a range of disciplines, discuss a wide array of issues — scientism and religious dogma, dialectics of faith and knowledge, science under colonial conditions, science and study of grammar, western science and classical systems of logic, metaphysics and methodology, and science and spirituality in the Mahabharata. This collection of essays aims to evolve a framework in which science, culture, and society in India may be studied fruitfully across disciplines and historical periods. With its diverse themes and original approaches, the book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of the history and philosophy of science, science and religion, cultural studies and colonial studies, philosophy and history, as well as India studies and South Asian studies.

Acknowledgements. Foreword. Prologue: Indian Psyche and Science. 1. Introduction 2. Science and Spirituality: Is There a Common Ground? 3. Dialectics of Culture and Science 4. Culture and Science in Twenty-first Century India 5. Modern Science in India and the Emergence of a New Worldview: Challenges and Opportunities6. Knowledge and Science in the Context of Indian Languages7. Indian Deductive System: The Logical Basisof Indian Sciences 8. Motion Interpreted: A Bridge between Science and Spirituality 9. Indian Science and Semiotics: Some Reflections 10. Integral Non-dualism and Modern Science: Some Reflections 11. Principles of Plant Taxonomy: A Fresh Insight into the Ancient Indian Methodology and Philosophy of Naming and Classifying Medicinal Plants 12. A Macro-Micro Systems Approach to Frame Holistic Studies on the Culture and Philosophy of Science in India 13. Reconciling Free Will and Determinism: An Indian Appropriation of Benjamin Libet’s Neuroscientific Findings 14. Science and Spirituality from the Perspective of the Mahabharata15. Revisiting Concepts of Health and Disease: Evolution, Philosophy, and Integration16. A Connecticut Yankee in Indira’s Court: A Brief Account of Modern Indian Science

Makarand R. Paranjape is Director, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, India. He has been Professor of English, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India for close to twenty years. Earlier, he taught at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi and the University of Hyderabad. His overseas assignments include the Eric Auerbach Visiting Chair in Global Literary Studies at the University of Tubingen, Germany and the ICCR Chair in Indian Studies at the National University of Singapore. He was educated at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi (BA Hons.) and received his Master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. He is the author/editor of over 45 books, which include works of criticism, poetry and fiction, and has published over 175 academic papers. His latest works include Debating the 'Post' Condition in India: Critical Vernaculars, Unauthorized Modernities, Post-Colonial Contentions (2017), Cultural Politics in Modern India (2016), The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi (2015), Making India: Colonialism, National Culture, and Indian English Literature (2015), and Acts of Faith: Journeys to Sacred India (2012).