{"id":105454,"date":"2020-08-13T16:52:57","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T23:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105454"},"modified":"2020-08-13T16:52:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T23:52:57","slug":"dr-nalin-de-silva-bemoans-the-the-cultural-narrative-of-western-science-yet-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/13\/dr-nalin-de-silva-bemoans-the-the-cultural-narrative-of-western-science-yet-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Nalin de Silva bemoans the \u201cThe Cultural Narrative of Western Science\u201d – yet again!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chandre Dharmawardana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Dr. Nalin the Silva refers to an article in the recent issue of Science (dated 11August 2020 although Science is a weekly journal) entitled:
Senior U.S. lawmaker wants National Academies to scrutinize racism in science<\/em>\u201d,
and uses this to jump to another topic, which he says is NOT discussed in the above article. In Dr. Nalin de Silva’s article (published in his website Kalaya),\u00a0 entitled\u00a0 \u0db6\u0da7\u0dc4\u0dd2\u0dbb \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dca\u200d\u0dba\u0dcf\u0dc0\u0dda \u0da2\u0dcf\u0dad\u0dd2\u0dc0\u0dcf\u0daf\u0dba\u201d, or Racism of Western Science\u201d, he uses the Science\u201d article to give seeming\u00a0 credence to a point of view totally unconnected with the article.

He uses the Science article on racism among scientists\u00a0 to elaborate on what is the cultural narrative available for Western Science, other than the Western Christian Culture?<\/em>\u00a0 (\u0db6\u0da7\u0dc4\u0dd2\u0dbb \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dca\u200d\u0dba\u0dcf\u0dc0\u0dda \u0db6\u0da7\u0dc4\u0dd2\u0dbb \u0d9a\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dd2\u0dc3\u0dca\u0dad\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dd2 \u0dc3\u0d82\u0dc3\u0dca\u0d9a\u0dd8\u0dad\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca \u0db4\u0dd2\u0da7 \u0dc3\u0d82\u0dc3\u0dca\u0d9a\u0dd8\u0dad\u0dd2\u0dba\u0d9a \u0dc3\u0d82\u0dc3\u0dca\u0d9a\u0dbb\u0dab\u0dba \u0d9a\u0dd9\u0dbb\u0dd9\u0db1 \u0d9a\u0dad\u0db1\u0dca\u0daf\u0dbb\u0dba\u0d9a\u0dca (\u0db4\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dc0\u0dcf\u0daf\u0dba\u0d9a\u0dca) \u0db4\u0dd2\u0dc5\u0dd2\u0d9c\u0dd0\u0db1\u0dd3\u0db8\u0da7 \u0d87\u0dad\u0dd2 \u0dc3\u0db8\u0dca\u0db7\u0dcf\u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dad\u0dcf\u0dc0 \u0d9a\u0dd4\u0db8\u0d9a\u0dca \u0daf?)\u201d. This becomes a spring board\u00a0 to beat his favourite\u00a0 b\u00eate noire<\/em> \u2013 namely, Western Science\u201d which is a \u201dPatta-pal-boruwa\u201d (i.e., well-fermented lie) concocted within the Western Christian Narrative, and hence having no validity in other cultures. Of course, Dr Silva prefers to ignore that all this\u00a0 has nothing to with the fact that some scientists happen to be\u00a0 racists, just as some Buddhists and some Christians happen to be racists. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Nalin de Silva and others like\nhim fail to distinguish between (a) the cultural adaptations or doings of\npractitioners of various professions  who  may use universal truths\nin their professional work, and (b) the universal truths themselves. This is\ntrue in every type of human endevour, not only in science but even in a\nnarrative\u201d like Buddhism that Dr. Silva has not yet openly rejected as a mere\ncultural concoction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, there is a distinction\nbetween the Buddha’s teaching (the facts\u201d discovered and enunciated by the\nBuddha), and the practices and  beliefs  of Buddhism as enacted by\nvarious Buddhist cultures. For instance, the Buddha rejects the caste system based\non birth,  but various monks, or groups of temples belonging to a\nNikaaya\u201d  will practice it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nThe Buddhist teaching itself is presented in different forms, in different\ncultures. For example, the Dhyaana<\/em> tradition in India becomes the Zen\ntradition of Japan and takes priority over other practices. The entirely\npacific teachings of the Buddha are modified and even martial arts are included\nin some forms of oriental Buddhism, ostensibly  for keeping fit. \nThen it is further  justified as being for self-defence<\/em> though the\nconcept of the self <\/em>is non-existent in early Buddhism. These\nmodifications and cultural adaptations\u201d are corruptions of the original\nuniversal teaching of the Buddha. Even the Buddhist Saints (Arhants) and\nBodhisatvas are re-interpreted to fit in with the demands of various\nnationalisms. For instance, God Natha, the serpent-headed divine figure\nvenerated by the Naga people is re-interpreted as  Mathreeya  \nBodhisatva. Divine figures of other religions are given a place as other Bodhisatvas\nor at least as Buddhist devas. The mighty Greek  conqueror Alexander \u2013 Iskander\n<\/em>in Persian, becomes God Skandha<\/em> and a  shrine in the south of\nSri Lanka is ascribed to him. So, Alexander   is  venerated as a\nBuddhist\u201d divine figure.
\nHowever, these modifications do NOT mean that the  universal truths taught\nby the Buddha are merely a matter of culture, and have no validity beyond\nconfines of those cultures. Only the cultural practices, which have nothing to\ndo with the original Arya Sathya\u201d, and other teachings are subject to cultural\nrelativism.

\nDr. Nalin de Silva is well known as a person who has claimed that science is a\nwell-fermented lie \u2013 a Patta Pal Boruwa\u201d, although he earned his living by\npracticing this alleged lie, and misguiding young Sri Lanka students away from\nit, and adulating occult, unsubstantiated belief systems like astrology and\ndivine revelation. I  think, in replying to a query by Dr. Carlo Fonseka,\nDr. Nalin de Silva wrote ,\u0d85\u0db4\u0dd2 \u0db4\u0dda\u0db1 \u0d85\u0dc3\u0db8\u0dd4, \u0d9a\u0dda\u0db1\u0dca\u0daf\u0dbb \u0db6\u0dbd\u0db8\u0dd4, \u2026.etc, on 16-June 2015 \u0d85\u0db4\u0da7 \u0dc0\u0dd9\u0da0\u0dca\u0da0 \u0daf\u0dda – 2) and embrace  the\nvery Brahmajaala\u201d that the Buddha condemned. In effect, science is a\nwell-fermented lie, while reading horoscopes is a way to getting at the truth,\naccording to this ex-Dean of Science.

\nThe basis of Dr. Nalin de Silva’s objections to science seems to be  that\nscientific truths are  (according to him) just cultural artifacts which\nare in essence lies.  So, the claim that the earth is a spheroid (and not\nmore or less flat) is a patta-pal-boruwak\u201d, while  the laws of\nelectromagnetism\u201d that make computers possible are a mere manifestation of a\nWestern Cultural Construction. According to Dr. de Silva and his followers,\nwhen science\u201d  is properly de-constructed\u201d, there is nothing in it but a\npatta-pal-boruwa\u201d.

\n And yet, Dr. Silva would say that although science is a\npatta-pal-boruwa\u201d, one can use it for practical purposes (e.g, use a computer\nor listen to TV) as a set of   useful lies\u201d that work! So he admits\nthat science is a lie\u201d that works in every culture! This is nothing but sheer\ncasuistry.

\nWhat is the underlying cultural narrative of science?  The cultural\nnarrative of science was laid down by the Greeks, with Archimedes using the\nexperimental method to study floating bodies, levers and pulley systems, while\nthe use of mathematics in these investigations was laid down by people like\nHeraclitus and Pythagoras. They in turn inherited the analytical and rational\napproach contained in the Buddhist teachings (e.g., the Gnana Sutta and the\nKalama Sutta) that had  reached them through the silk road a century\nearlier. It was the Buddha who said, if you have to determine if a piece of\nmetal is a base metal, or a Nobel metal, then you use the touch stone to test\nit. In the same way, Monks, you determine the truth of the Dhamma by trying it\nou<\/em>t\u201d. That was the first clear exposition of the experimental method,\nseveral centuries before Archimedes.  I have discussed the links of Greek\nScience  with early Buddhist thought in my book A Physicist’s view of\nMatter and Mind\u201d (World Scientific, 2014).

\nBut science  has come a long way since the time of Archimedes, Ptolemy and\nothers. What are the universal truths of science? Science holds that there are\nseveral types of energy fields. The energy in these fields can manifest in the\nform of particles or waves which are called excitations\u201d. There are several\ntypes of  excitations (particles), these being. e.g.,  quarks,\nleptons, photons, or gravitons. Whether the excitations are waves, or\nparticles, is determined by the boundary condition\u201d used to specify the action\nof the measuring apparatus on the system under observation. How the particles\n(or waves)  interact, what laws they obey etc., can  mostly be\ndeduced from simple assumptions like the isotropy of space and time (together\nforming at least four dimensions), and basic symmetries (gauge symmetry,\nLorentz symmetry).  The movements of particles obey a minimum principle\nknown as the principle of least action\u201d. It is that principle that makes a ray\nof light follow the shortest path between two points. Aristotle was intrigued\nby this teleology\u201d, but today we understand it fully as a consequence of\ngauge symmetry\u201d. Using these, one can deduce the various equations\u201d that\ngovern the universe, and arrive at the equations of Einstein, Dirac, Maxwell,\nSchrodinger and others.

\nThere is\nnothing Christian\u201d in all this. In fact, some writers have claimed that the\nnarrative\u201d in terms  of energy fields is very much in  line with\nBuddhist and other Indian thought systems.


<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chandre Dharmawardana Dr. Nalin the Silva refers to an article in the recent issue of Science (dated 11August 2020 although Science is a weekly journal) entitled: Senior U.S. lawmaker wants National Academies to scrutinize racism in science\u201d, and uses this to jump to another topic, which he says is NOT discussed in the above […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}