1. Introduction

I grew up in a village on the foothills of Western Ghats mountain range in southern India. It was a small community set in the lush greenery of pepper and coconut groves. Life was organic and the air full of hope and excitement. A deep sense of connectedness pervaded the green valleys bubbling with myriad forms … Continue reading 1. Introduction →

4. Knower and the Known

Q: What exactly is the ‘knower’? How does it generate objective knowledge? A: Defining ‘knower’ as a black box is an attempt to stick to physicalism without explaining away phenomenal consciousness. Mind evolving from matter is often presented as an option, but it is an explanatory dead-end. ‘Knower’ hypothesis is an attempt to bypass the ‘mind-from-matter’ miracle … Continue reading 4. Knower and the Known →

6. The Knowledge Spectrum and Two-Eyed Seeing

Q: Let us get back to the ‘knower’ and its history. You said its sole function is to generate objective knowledge. How about other types of knowledge claims? Where does subjective knowledge come from? A: ‘Knowledge’ is a word with many shades of meaning, ranging from precise as in ‘scientific knowledge’ to ambiguous as in … Continue reading 6. The Knowledge Spectrum and Two-Eyed Seeing →

8. Science of Life: Promises and Pitfalls

Q: How will all these speculations about nature of knowledge help with the ‘problem of life’? A: Let us come back to the problem of life. There are two sub problems involved as discussed earlier. Explaining the mechanism of life is a scientific problem and it is fairly well understood. Life’s meaning and purpose is the other … Continue reading 8. Science of Life: Promises and Pitfalls →

9. Beyond Matter and Mind

Q: You keep bringing up the term ‘unknowability’. I can understand there are things we do not yet know in science but you seem to mean something else. What exactly is the ‘unknowability’ you refer to? A: Science’s reality consists of the ‘objectively knowable’. I believe ‘objectively knowable’ is only a subset of reality. Q: You have got … Continue reading 9. Beyond Matter and Mind →

13. The Way of Nature

Q: What do you see as the greatest challenge facing mankind? A: The greatest challenge is to arrive at a theory of life inclusive of its subjective features. Individual existence is insignificant from science’s objective point of view, but infinitely significant from the subject’s own view point. These two diametrically opposing facts must be reconciled. Q: That is … Continue reading 13. The Way of Nature →

14. In a nutshell…

I have tried to explore the problem of life from different angles through these dialogues. The result is a chain of interlinked ideas. Here are the major themes of my argument: The Problem of Life Life remains a mystery. Science has done a great job about the mechanism of life while purpose and meaning questions … Continue reading 14. In a nutshell… →