Foundations of Indian Psychology, Volume 1

15

Knowing in the Indian Tradition

Girishwar Misra

The intellect acquires critical acumen by familiarity with different traditions. How much does one really understand by merely following one's own reasoning only?

 

—Bhartṛhari (Vākyapadīya 2.484)

The quest for knowledge in social sciences has largely emulated and adopted the natural scientific mode of knowing under the assumption that the crux of scientific understanding lies in the set procedures irrespective of the domain of study. A close scrutiny of the repertoire of the empirical methods and techniques makes it amply clear that such an approach was based on the premises of unity of science, observer-independent reality, static and fixed nature of reality and possibility of valid and value-free ...