Why Science doesn't understand Personhood
Bhakti Vijnana Muni
The more philosophical thought considers matter as attenuated consciousness. For example the German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling explained in his Transcendental Philosophy that “Nature is fossilized intelligence.”[1]
Material Nature is not producing any intelligence but when consciousness becomes reduced, it becomes what is called as Matter. The problem in modern science has been mainly the attempt to explain everything by reducing it to matter. Thereby it becomes limited to Reductive Mechanistic and Impersonal Laws.
Science does not consider the contribution to Thought to Being. However in the Vedantic Line of Thought, tattva or The concept is both Substance (vastu) as well as simultaneously adi-purusha (Personality). The Sanskrit and Bengali term for simultaneous is yugapath. We will find that Reality in Vedanta is expressed in terms of simultaneous expressions of opposites such as identity and distinction. Modern Scientific attempts of mechanical idealizations of phenomenon is unable to grasp consciousness and personality. Yet the Vedantic Logic is Wholistic and deals with the simultaneous oppositions within its concepts (tattva). In this way the scope of Vedanta includes even art, aesthetics, beauty and satisfaction. But Science cannot penetrate these with its limited mechanical tools.
Absolute Truth is Simultanously Substance and Subject: G.W.F. Hegel’s great Contribution:
Hegel developed his system of philosophy on the basis of the Absolute Idea. He said in his phenomenology of Spirit, “Everything turns on comprehending and expressing the Absolute Truth, not only as Substance but just as certainly as Subject." According to Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, PhD what may be considered the strongest pillars of modern science - evolutionism and impersonalism - from a Hegelian perspective are the two most obdurate obstacles to the advancement of genuine science.
Concept of Personhood
Hegel’s concept of Personhood is based upon the logical doctrine of The Concept. The philosophical position of The Concept is Absolute Truth or Objective Idealism. Hegel identifies the concept of Person with one of the logical moments of teh concept, i.e. Singularity. However this singularity is the dialectical union of the Universal and Particular. Therefore this singularity is a concrete universal rather than being an abstract universal. Personality is also a unity of being-for-self and the being[for-other. But this unity is a unity that is free. Thus Freedom is defined as being at home with oneself in another.
Why For Modern Science Consciousness is Hard to Explain
The main reason for modern science’s inability to explain consciousness is that it has ignored the role of thought to Being. It leaves out the role of the conscious scientist in its concept or picture of nature. Science separates and isolates consciousness from its objects. Science develops as if in its theories and concepts of Nature, consciousness or empirical perception makes no contribution to the observational data. And Yet this empirical perceptions is essential to the whole process of making and recording scientific observations.
According to Hegel we face this difficulty in explaining consciousness because we think that natural objects confront us as permanent and impenetrable objects. This universal aspect of things is not something subjective that belongs to us. It is the noumenon, which is the true, objective, actual nature of things themselves. Like the Platonic ideas it exists in individual things as their substantial genera. For Hegel this problem arises in Physics because it ignores the specific differences (bestimmteiten) and is too much dominated by the category of identity. We have discussed this point in a previous email in the group.
Therefore Hegel addresses this question in his Philosophy of Nature. For him Physics does not study the Notion for which we have to go further into more systematic and higher logical considerations that the logic of pure identities. Because of these reasons science cannot deal with concepts of freedom, will and subjectivity. We need to learn the logical structure of reality to grasp these notions.
Thanking you,
Bhakti Vijnana Muni, PhD
References
[1] Rajan, Tilottama, "Blake, Hegel, and the Sciences" (2019). Department of English Publications. 149.