Seminars
| Seminar
on The Limits of Reductionist Science: |
The
symposium Limits of Reductionist Science was held in the Academy on 10 March 2003
under the convenership of Prof Indraneel Mittra, FNA. The symposium included the
following presentations : 1) Prof. Ranjit Nair: The Nature of Reductionism in
Science: 2) Prof N Mukunda, FNA: Reflections of Reductionism in Physics; 3) Prof
Debashish Mukherjee, FNA: Aspects of Reductionism in Chemistry; and 4) Swami Jitatmamanda:
Science and Holism. Prof MS Valiathan, President, INSA inaugurated the seminar.
While inaugurating the seminar, Professor Valiathan explained that in a reductionist
world, matter or substance which are starkly real from a common sense point of
view, cease to have any meaning at the sub-atomic level. The problem with a solely
reductionist approach is the missing link between the component parts of the whole
and the organic whole itself. Professor Ranjit Nair discussed varieties of reduction,
namely constitutive, nomic and explanatory and distinctions between strong and
weak forms of reductionism. He concluded that there are major difficulties that
call for resolution even within a weak reductionist picture..
rofessor
N Mukunda while reflecting on Reductionism in Physics said that the reductionist
idea has been extremely successful in the development of physics over the past
three centuries. The motivation of reductionism is economy and simplicity of concepts.
However an important failure of the reductionist approach was the attempt to reduce
electro magnetic-phenomena also to mechanics. Professor Mukunda concluded that
in all this we recognize that reductionism is an epistemological tool rather than
an ontological fact, and that the converse process of synthesis is always a much
harder problem
|
Seminar
on The Limits of Reductionist Science in progress in the Academy premises on March
9, 2003 |
Professor
Mittra in his talk entitled Limits of Molecular Biology wondered whether the existence
and operation of highly complex functionally organized systems, and the appearance
of self-replicating forms in biology, can be accounted for in terms of particle
physics alone, or whether they require independent principles of order. Professor
Mittra said that a certain degree of reductionism is essential in biological research,
but the pursuit of extreme reductionism prompted by the discovery of the structure
of DNA has given rise to the misguided belief that problems of biology can also
be solved by applying the reductionist principles of physics. Although, the Watson
and Crick’s discovery is now 50 years old, very few acquired human diseases
have been explained, let alone ameliorated, by the reductionst principles of molecular
biology and molecular genetics. Admittedly, the underlying genes of many inherited
diseases which follow a strict Mendelian order have been identified by molecular
techniques; but Mendelian principles do not apply to the acquired diseases that
are associated with ageing.
Professor Mukherjee in his talk entitled Aspects
of Reductionism in Chemistry explained that the underlying fundamental laws of
chemistry are rooted in the physical laws, but the urge to understand our world
of senses created by molecules of great diversity gets its stimulus from criteria
which are extraneous to the physical laws. The chemical concepts are thus robust
at the chemical level, and they enjoy a relative degree of autonomy. Reductionism
in the strong sense is invalid, although the downward compatibility to physics
does spell a weak reduction is some sense.
The last lecture entitled Science
and Holism was delivered by Swami Jitatmananda. Since the beginning of 20th century,
however, new discoveries of science have broken the old barriers separating mind
and matter, matter and energy, space and time, living and non-living, observer
and the observed. Schrodinger’s discovery of wave equation has confirmed
that consciousness is creating the eternal reality. Sir JC Bose, in 1901 showed
that it is one consciousness which pulsates in living organism, plants, and even
metals. The successful experiments by Wilder Penfield, Joh Ecceles, and Roger
Sperry confirms that consciousness is not in the brain, but works through the
brain and influences the body. Max Born’s discovery of electrons as probability
waves show that electrons act like organic entities having the conscious power
of choose. The discoveries of Abdus Salam, Sheldon Glashaw and Stecen Weinberg
point towards a unification of physical forces, as dreamt of by Einstein, in the
universe. According to Swami Jitatmananda science is today pointing towards, not
a dualistic but the holistic philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. |
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