Science & Spirituality

In 1992 the Society embarked on an examination of the common assumptions underlying the physical and social sciences in the light of Sri Aurobindo's thought. Discussions were conducted with two Nobel laureates in Physics and other internationally distinguished scientists in India, Sweden, Italy, Russia and USA on methods to bring about this breakthrough and reconciliation of scientific and spiritual knowledge.

In 2003, the Society launched a research project to re-examine of the basic principles underlying modern science in the light of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, including a review of current thinking in nuclear physics, cosmology, biology and systems theory to identify the underlying mental framework and implicit assumptions about the process of creation in the universe and to compare it with the process described by Sri Aurobindo.

Future of Science

In October, 1994, the Society co-organized a special session on the Future of Science at the General Assembly of the World Academy of Art & Science in Minneapolis, USA.

Human Science

The division of fields of knowledge into innumerable disciplines and subdisciplines has resulted in an extreme fragmentation of knowledge that prevents formulation of common underlying principles and processes. It has also fostered a growing abstraction and separation between knowledge and human beings. In 2007, MSS launched a new collaborative project entitled Human Science wiki (www.humanscience.info) in an attempt to identify common underlying processes and principles unifying the various fields of social sciences and humanities. Human Science is based on the premise that there is one fundamental science of humanity that transcends and unifies all the fields of social science and humanities. The same universal principles, processes and patterns govern and underlie human activity in different fields. The same principles and processes govern behavior and events at the level of the individual, family, organization, community, nation and the global community. It conceives of political, economic, social and historical phenomena as expressions of individual and social psychology, rather than self-existent fields governed by impersonal laws independent of human beings.

Mind, Rationality & Science

In pursuit of knowledge, the sciences depend on a wide variety of instruments suited for study of different fields, but there is one instrument of supreme importance to all science – the instrument of rationality. Given its the central importance, it is remarkable that greater attention is not focused on defining the criteria that distinguish rational thought from other forms of cognition which attempt to mimic it as well as on the inherent limitations in reliance on the faculty of rationality as an instrument of knowledge. The Society has a proposal for a research project on this subject in collaboration with the World Academy of Art & Science.