The Scientific Method # 8

Sankara's reply :

Hi Kislay,

You have mentioned about the "process of drawing a map" and have equated it
to the mathematical method of representing it in terms of symbols and
formulae.i believe your analogy is incorrect.


The natural phenomenon is the territory. The process of enquiry is the
conceps of drawing a map. Sceintific model of enquiry is just one of the
ways of drawing a map. The problem with your argument is that you are
equating one of the instances of the class with the class itself. This
probably comes from the belief that it is the only instance possible. It is
precisely this dogma that I am uncomfortable with. Just as scientific
enquiry, we can possibly have some other kinds of enquiry, which though may
not be as popular as scientifc one, yet may have the potential to explain
natural phenomena.

The reason for such a belief stems from the fact that scientific inquiry has
advanced quite a lot and is now capable of explaining many concepts. But
this alone does not give us the justification to claim that it IS THE ONLY
MODE OF ENQUIRY POSSIBLE. I think, what we require is a multi disciplanary
approach. We need to draw lessons from metaphysics, easterm mysticism and
others schools of thought. Or in fact, a systematic study of Vedas should
also help us understand many natural phenomena. Its not without reason that
Dayanand Saraswati asked us to go back to the vedas.