A philosophical relection on the history of science in India

Abstract

One of the major characteristics of science is the observation of facts in sense experience. Modern science has reckoned with this feature and it is a truism that this feature is indispensable to the notion of science in general. The challenges that confront empirical observations including fallibility and changeability among others not withstanding do not in any way reduce the imperativeness and pertinence of observation in science. In this paper, I have argued that the attitude of observing phenomena is as old as man himself who exhibits this attitude and whether he is conscious of what he observes or not, it remains significant that observation influences his life directly or indirectly. The conclusion reached is that our cultures and traditions may have started with the empirical observations of the environment we find ourselves and if this is the case then, it is arguable that science which is fundamentally anchored on observation is part of our culture and tradition and has gone a long way to mould man disparately in line with the ways he understands his immediate observed environment.