Mathematics, Astronomy and Biology in Indian Tradition (Some Conceptual Preliminaries)

This monograph, Mathematics Astronomy and Biology in Indian Tradition, is a collection of five research papers by eminent scholars in the fields of philosophy, science, history and culture. Along with its companion publications, it provides glimpses of the comprehensive and interdisciplinary research work that has been undertaken by the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC). It is a critical exercise in rediscovering, recapturing and reinterpreting the heritage of India from a contemporary point of view. Like any other truly historical Project it has an implicit futural orientation.

The main idea underlying this Project, launched by Indian Council of Philosophical Research, and aided by Government of India and some other agencies, is to study the interconnection between philosophy, science and technology as elements of the culture of India. We have our political history, history of philosophy and history of science. Also, some attempts have been made to reconstruct our cultural history. It must be recognized here that the disciplines which are being distinctly named now as science, philosophy, etc., did not mean the same thing over the centuries in the past. Further, it should be admitted that the historical approach of the Project is not chronological or linear. Consciously, it has been designed as conceptual. The hallmark of the Project is its interdisciplinarity.

Preface
1. Science, Technology and Their Human Roots
   D.P. Chattopadhyaya

2. The Scientific Temper and the Scientific Method in Science in India through History, with Special Reference to Biology
   Pushpa M. Bhargava and Chandana Chakrabarti

3. Time in Indian and Western Traditions and Time in Physics
   D.K. Sinha

4. Mathematical and Astronomical Heritage of India
   A.K. Bag

   Contributors