Skip to main content

Indian Idealists! You have evolutionary work to do.


The kind and quality of books being generated by western philosophers of science is awe inspiring. But as a well wisher of Indian philosophy, it also evokes an old sorrow.
This is sad because proto-Idealism and Idealism were both Indian inventions. And it was exported to Greece, China, Japan and Renaissance Europe in multiple waves, triggering great intellectual movements there. This fact is admitted by foreign scholars themselves (Diogenes Laertius, Philostratus, Voltaire, Schopenhauer etc)
Question to Indian Idealist Thinkers- (O ye Cittamātravādins my fellows!!) Why are you not even trying to incorporate Evolutionary biology into the now ossified and adamantly stagnant Indian systems of thought?
When will we see an Indian work with the title- "Universal biology after Aitareya, Kapila, Buddha and Shankara"? Oh the agony of waiting!
Question to Indian 'Realists' (Dvaita, Jaina, Samkhyas, Navya-Nyaya etc whom I place under class 'Sarvāstivāda'--"All exists")- For thousands of years, all of you have argued that "Karma" (Causality) is the reason for all variation in Nature. This is resoundingly challenged by recent discoveries. In my interactions with some truly erudite researchers in the now defunct forum 'Anthrogenica'- I learned a rather worldview shifting FACT--> "Variation in nature is because of Entropy. It is calorifically impossible to error- correct all mistakes in DNA propagation"- This is nothing but the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Humans will have to eat at least three times more food if evolution wanted to ensure DNA is passed on without errors. A huge ATP burden just to ensure all errors are corrected. An effort that is not worth the squeeze. Hence naturally non-selected. And this is the reason every generation will always be different from the previous. THIS is the Origin of Species. How will modern Sarvāstivādins salvage the ancient and chaotic 'Theory of Karma' in the light of facts like these? Indian Idealists (the cittamatravadins) never accepted Karma as a Paramartha (Thing-in-Itself), hence I think we can easily assimilate Evolutionary Biology into Indian philosophy. But I am not sure 'Indian Realism' is compatible with it. Hence I eagerly wait with philosophical popcorn to see Sarvastivadins struggle to pull it off. What-if anything- connects Entropy and Karma?
As of now, no writer in India from any side of the Thougt-spectrum is even remotely interested this glorious but unfinished business of Indian philosophy.


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Andhras- The world's oldest(surviving) tribe?

The Aitareya Brahmana is special. On many counts. For one, it is pretty old. In fact it is the oldest brahmana and it belongs to the Rig Veda. Secondly, it contains a profusion of curious historical information about bronze age Indian society, contemporary kings and sages, kingdoms as well as quite a few obscure and named tribes who are yet to plunge into the Vedic pale. The 'Vedic pale', we know from several other indicators, was in the earliest Rig Vedic times and before it restricted to what is now Haryana and it's thereabouts. One such reference is to be found in verse VII.18 of the text. Visvāmitra had a hundred and one sons, fifty older than  Madhuchandas, fifty younger. Those that were older did not think this  right..Them he cursed (saying) “Your offspring shall inherit the ends" (of the earth). These are the (people), the Andhras, Pundras, Sabaras, Pulindas, and Mütibas ,” who live in large numbers beyond the borders; most of the Dasyus are the descend
9 comments
Read more

Tura Kavaseya- The first Philosopher?

Abstract : It has become a general premise of indology that the poetry of the Samhitas, the ritualistic prose of the Brahmanas and the philosophical outpourings of the Upanishads, their development and content are chronologically and qualitatively exclusive of each other i.e. they represent successive stages of Vedic literature, history and philosophy. On closer look, the view fails to hold either in the concern of composition, compilation or even of concept. One safe path across this chronological obscurity is to search out the references to historical personalities, contemporary or reminiscent, contained within these texts. The line of teachers of Vedantic philosophy recorded in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad VI.5 offers a unique opportunity in this regard. Keywords: Tura Kavaseya, Upanishads, Aitareya, Kausitaki, Shatapatha, Kavasa Ailusa, Brihadaranyaka, Sudasa, Somaka, Sahadeva, Janamejaya, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda. The story of philosophy, no doubt, begins with the
4 comments
Read more

India- The country that isn't.

These are times like never before when many parts of the world, swept over by liberal ideals and the all-blending torrents of globalization question the very founding premises of intangible things like 'State', 'nation', 'people', 'patriotism' and so on. They were intangible but they were at the same time immutable, for thousands of years. Now, they seem to make a journey into the abstract and non-existent in people's reasoning. By no means are these changes wrong or without merit. Nationalist feelings can be accused of historically and presently sprouting all kinds of nastiness in collective human behavior. But we are not going to discuss the merits and demerits of any line of political thought. We are going to examine the curious case of one particular 'country'- India. India, or south Asia to be historically accurate, is an entity whose true nature cannot be adequately encompassed by any modern political equation, borders, law
2 comments
Read more