Rationalist approach to interpreting scripture...
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Madhavacharya (circa 13th century AD) has taken a somewhat rationalist view on the question of interpretation of religious scripture. According to Madhava, if there is any contradiction between what scripture (the Vedas, in Madhava's case) is saying and direct perception, then one must reinterpret the scripture so as to bring it in accordance with what perception is telling us. Further, says Madhava, direct perception gets priority over anything written in the Vedas with respect to sensual/sexual matters.
For a religious Vedantin, the above is a slightly radical stand to take in as much as Madhava seems to be placing a lot of emphasis on reason and the pramanas or valid sources of knowledge like perception and inference.
The modern Indian rationalist can take heart from Madhava's message, and in fact one can go a step further and claim that nothing is to be accepted unless it is in accordance with our reason and experience.
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Dear Rashmun,
But the problem with today's Indian Rationalists is that they are not " Ratioanlists " in the literary meaning, they simply negate everything without applying the rationale or logic.
For exampl, if they cannot experiecne something , the maximum they can say that they have not experienced it ....but they cannot negate somebody else's experience.....
Even the Marxism was born in the era after Newtonian physics and owe a lot to the scientific concepts of that time...today mordern science has move far ahead and the objectivity is not the base of it any more ....it is moving towards the level of philosophy.
Quantum physics says if you observe something ..that itself wil change it's existence......Kapra says in his book Tao of Physics..., explaining Boots Strap theory that science is not moveing in a lenier path as it was beleived to be in the time of Aristotle....it is like Boots' Strap..one theory contradics the other and the contradictions can be complementaries....
Frigo Kapra (I might have mis-spelt the name) and George Sudarshan (who invented the existence of Takions the particles which can move with greater speed than light) etc...the modern physisists have a lot of respect towards Indian and Eastern Pilosophy as a whole..where as the comparatively illitrate Karunanidhi ......who wears black spectacles to stop the light of intelligence coming to him...calls him as a rationalist....can anybody call him a rationalist..?
Satheesan KS
Thane
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Dear Rashmun,
But the problem with today's Indian Rationalists is that they are not " Ratioanlists " in the literary meaning, they simply negate everything without applying the rationale or logic.
For exampl, if they cannot experiecne something , the maximum they can say that they have not experienced it ....but they cannot negate somebody else's experience.....
Even the Marxism was born in the era after Newtonian physics and owe a lot to the scientific concepts of that time...today mordern science has move far ahead and the objectivity is not the base of it any more ....it is moving towards the level of philosophy.
Quantum physics says if you observe something ..that itself wil change it's existence......Kapra says in his book Tao of Physics..., explaining Boots Strap theory that science is not moveing in a lenier path as it was beleived to be in the time of Aristotle....it is like Boots' Strap..one theory contradics the other and the contradictions can be complementaries....
Frigo Kapra (I might have mis-spelt the name) and George Sudarshan (who invented the existence of Takions the particles which can move with greater speed than light) etc...the modern physisists have a lot of respect towards Indian and Eastern Pilosophy as a whole..where as the comparatively illitrate Karunanidhi ......who wears black spectacles to stop the light of intelligence coming to him...calls him as a rationalist....can anybody call him a rationalist..?
Satheesan KS
Thane
Reply | | Report Abuse