Philosophy and Science: An Exploratory Approach to Consciousness

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Consciousness is a particularly unified phenomenon which has of late drawn the attention of scholars of different disciplines all over world. But the opinions of these scholars are so varied that it is very difficult to have any kind of consensus- though everyone, perhaps, feels the urgency of exploring this mystery. The Institute presented an international seminar on the subject ‘Philosophy and Science: An Exploratory Approach to Consciousness’ on 8 and 9 February 2002.

The seminar was inaugurated y Swami Ranganathananda, President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, and Professor Karl H. Pribram, Professor Emeritus, Standford University, gave the keynote address of the inaugural session. This was followed by four academic sessions on two days and the valedictory session. The main feature of the valedictory session was a panel discussion among five scholars with Professor J.N. Mohanty of Temple University, Philadelphia, as the co-ordinator. In all, twenty –six scholars from different parts of India as also from outside the country participated. In the academic sessions, each scholar presented a 20-minute paper, followed by a discussion for another 25 minutes. This volume contains the papers presented by the participants in the seminar, along with along with salient portions of the question- and- answer sessions.

Consciousness is a particularly unified phenomenon which has of late drawn the attention of scholars of different disciplines all over world. However, the opinions of these scholars are so varied that it is very difficult to have any kind of consensus-though everyone feels the urgency of exploring this mystery. On 8 and 9 February 2002, the Institute presented an international seminar on the subject ‘Philosophy and Science: An Exploratory Approach to Consciousness’, in which twenty-six scholars from different parts of India as also from outside the country participated. Every scholar presented a 20-minute paper, and each paper was followed by a discussion for another 25 minutes. Thus it was possible to have some meaningful exchanges of views.

The inaugural meeting received the benediction of Swami Ranganthanandaji Maharaj, President of the Rammakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. The keynote address was presented by Prof. Karl H. Probram, Professor Emeritus, Standford University. Swami Smaranananda, General Secretary, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, also gave a short address. The meeting was chaired by M.V.S. Valiathan, President, Indian National Science Academy.

An interesting feature of the valedictory session was the brief summing up of the proceedings by Prof. Samir Bhattacharya, Director, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology. This was followed by a panel discussion among five scholars with Prof. J.N.Mohanty of Temple University, Philadelphia, as the co-ordianator. This discussion helped to clarify the subject further for people.

We are grateful to the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, for its active support and financial assistance to the Institute for the seminar. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, also lent financial help to the Institute to partially meet the expenses, and for this we express our thanks.

This volume contains the papers presented bu the participants in the seminar, along with salient portons of the interesting question-and 0answer sessions that followed. We are thankful to Prof. Pradyot Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Dr Samir Bhattacharya, prof. Sisir Roy, Dr Debabrata Sen Sarma, Dr Dipti Pal, and particularly to Dr Visvanath Chatterjee, for editing the proceedings.

We hope this brief this brief study on consciousness will evoke further interest among scholars of different disciplines for more investigations on the subject.