Myth, Science and Writing: A Valediction to Social Sciences

This chapter, a revised version of a public lecture given at the Indian Institute of Rural Management, presents the genesis of Social sciences within the context of continuously changing forms and meaning of knowledge. It discusses the essential character of knowledge as ‘production’ related to the material and cultural conditions within which it is produced. After presenting a detailed account of the shift in episteme from the ancient Greek era to the medieval times in Europe, this chapter takes up the question of ‘truth’ in sciences. It argues that sciences aim at describing ‘truth’ of the world, of matter and of existence, or what the German philosopher Immanuel Kant described as ‘the phenomenal world’ Sciences grapple with the phenomena, the multiplicity of events and objects that constitute existence, and try to fathom their integrated meaning, to locate the recurrent patterns, to make a sense out of their syntax. I am hesitant while using the term ‘truth’. But if sciences aim at describing the ‘truth of matter and existence’, they alone can never construct the complete narration of the truth of the world. Every established view of ‘truth’ gets modified every few centuries, and the foundation of scientific thought too undergoes a change every few centuries. An established body of myth too similarly undergoes radical changes. Since all of these are open to change, is there any durable foundation for Social sciences? It further presents a brief account of the concept ‘truth’ in Indian tradition and argues that formal knowledge keeps inevitably moving away from freedom, and new shifts in forms of knowledge become necessary to bridge once again the gap caused by the alienation between truth and knowledge. The chapter presents a perspective on the biases ingrained within the Social sciences from the beginning of the nineteenth century in Europe, and as they are practiced in post-colonial cultures.