CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY STUDIES
URL: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

Presents a Talk on:
Movements in the Brain - The Brain in Movements

by

Dr. Arko Ghosh
Institute for Neuroinformatics, ETH and University of Zurich, Switzerland
Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience,University College London, UK

Date & Time: Monday, 27th Dec 2010, Time: 4:00 pm
Venue : CCS Seminar Hall, IISc, Bangalore 12
(Note our new premises : Former JNCASR, near Health Centre)

All are cordially invited
Tea/Coffee will be served at 3:30 p.m.

Abstract
For every movement we perform the brain receives inputs from the muscles,
skin, tendons and joints - and from these inputs the brain derives a sense
of oneself or 'proprioception'. Proprioception is processed for perception
and action. I will demonstrate which of the many receptors is key for the
perception of movements. I shall also discuss my ongoing experiments on how
we perceive reflexive movements.
The centre for higher brain function - the cerebral cortex - governs our
skilful actions. Notably, the motor cortex is necessary for movement
production. I will show that sensory inputs from the body can drive the
motor cortex. But, does this mean we are supposed to move every time we are
touched or is the motor cortex doing something we do not understand?

Production of Knowledge in the Natural & Social Sciences

Co-hosted by
Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS), IISc, Bangalore
&
Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore

Session 18: The Body in (and out of) the Text: Knowledge Production between the Oral and the Written

by

Dr. Ananya Jahanara Kabir
Senior Lecturer, AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellow
School of English, University of Leeds

Abstract:

This session will concentrate on a fundamental issue within Arts and Humanities methodologies: how we may recover and evaluate non-written modes of knowledge production and transmission, given the overwhelming dependence of epistemological and pedagogic systems on textuality. The first lecture will introduce students to the basic and much-celebrated conundrum of the ephemeral voice vs. the fixed text, via a classic of Western philosophy: Plato's Phaedrus. The second lecture will explore further the problematic value-judgements that have accrued to this binary, particularly those provoked by the association of orality with 'nature', and of writtenness with 'culture'; with illustration provided by extracts from the celebrated Caribbean poet, Derek Walcott's modern epic, Omeros (1990). Throughout, we will be attentive to issues of power and control attendant on the persistence of the oral/textual binary in Western-derived thought, bearing in mind, for instance, the relationship between Plato and the Greek city-state, or between Walcott and the history of colonialism. However, this emphasis will also lead us to ask if privileging a South Asian cultural perspective can reveal lternative ways of thinking about the body in, and out, of the text. During the lectures, you will be encouraged to think of examples from South Asian cultural systems that engage the encounter between the oral and the written: e.g. the concepts of sruti and smriti, or the linguistic and historical relationship between Sanskrit and its apabhramsa languages.

Suggested Readings:

Plato's Phaedrus in English translation, at http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/plato/plato-phaedrus.asp

Derek Walcott, Omeros, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1990.

Date & Time: Saturday, 18th December 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

for details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

All are cordially invited
Coffee/Tea and Snacks will be served at 3:30 p.m

192.

Centre for Contemporary Studies

Presents a talk on: "Staging a Farce with a Tragic Hero: On Comedy, Tragedy, and The Beginnings of Drama Theory"

by

Prof. Luca Giuliani
Rector, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin

Abstract: Greek vases occasionally show images of theatre productions: we see actors in grotesque costumes and masks, performing actions that provoke laughter. What exactly makes an audience laugh is sometimes hard to understand for an outsider. Comedy is generally considered to be a light genre; but its jokes and double meanings are deeply context dependent and rooted in a specific culture; this makes comedy, despite all its lightness, a peculiarly difficult genre for historical interpretation. At the same time comedy is able to laugh about itself, and thereby gains a reflexive capacity that can go far beyond that of a serious genre like tragedy.

Date & Time: Thursday, 9th December 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

All are cordially invited
Coffee/Tea and Snacks will be served at 3:30 p.m

191.

Production of Knowledge in the Natural & Social Sciences

Co-hosted by
Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS), IISc, Bangalore
&
Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore

Session 17: Burials: The Living And The Dead

by

Prof. Luca Giuliani
Rector, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin

Abstract: All societies consider the death of one of its members as a crisis that requires a ritualised reaction; rituals for the dead are, of course, transitory; nevertheless they can leave lasting traces in form of graves. But the meaning of graves can go far beyond this: sometimes they have the purpose of preserving the memory of the dead for posterity; with this they offer us insight not only into life and death of an individual, but also into the way the specific culture dealt
with life and death in general.

Date & Time: Saturday, 11th December 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

for details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

All are cordially invited
Coffee/Tea and Snacks will be served at 3:30 p.m

Co-hosted by
Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS), IISc, Bangalore
&
Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore

Session 16: Discussion of Participant Paper Abstracts

Date & Time: Saturday, 4th December 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

for details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

All are cordially invited
Coffee/Tea and Snacks will be served at 3:30 p.m

Co-hosted by
Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS), IISc, Bangalore
&
Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore

Session 15 A: The Dialectical Relation Between Cognition and Mathematics

by

Dr. Rajesjh Kasturirangan
Associate Professor, School of Humanities,
National Institute of AdvancedStudies, Bangalore

Abstract:

For much of the twentieth century, studies of cognition took their cues from developments in logic and mathematics. Mathematical ideas about computability in particular have greatly influenced the study of the human mind. Even now, the computer is the dominant metaphor in the mind and brain sciences. However, there is also an increasing awareness that the relationship between mathematics and cognition is not a one way street. Some researchers – such as Lakoff and Nunez – have started exploring mathematics as a domain of human expertise that draws upon more basic and embodied cognitive capacities. I believe that this is a particularly fertile period to investigate the relation between mathematics and cognition; instead of reducing one to the other (as both previous efforts have tried to do), I believe that it is most fruitful to think of the relation between mathematics and cognition as a dialectical relation. A dialectical approach is particularly useful when investigating the foundations of the two disciplines. In particular, some of the foundational questions in the two fields are substantively reformulated when looked at through the dialectical lens. In short, mathematicians should pay more attention to cognition and vice versa. 

Session 15B: What Makes Us Dream?

by
Dr. Anup Dhar
Fellow, Centre for the Study of Culture & Society, Bangalore

Abstract:

How does one make four equilateral triangles with six matchsticks?
How to think about how we think? “What makes us think”? What makes us ‘feel’? What makes us think and feel the way we think and feel? What makes us ‘dream’? What makes us ‘hear voices’ and ‘see apparitions’? What is the ‘structure’ and ‘function’ of the mind?
How do we explain the transition from inanimate matter (the world of physics and chemistry) to life-worlds (the world of biology) … from elementary life-worlds to human worlds (the world of anthropology) … from primal human worlds to worlds with consciousness, language, sociality, reason, value and ethics (the world of the human sciences)? How would we know what the process of the emergence of the ‘mind’ is?
In terms of input-level or methodological sophistication, could the model of the dialogue (for example the dialogue between Jean-Pierre Changeux, a neuroscientist at the College de France, and Paul Ricoeur, a Parisian philosopher in the phenomenological-hermeneutic tradition, to explore fundamental issues in cognitive neuroscience and philosophy of mind – see attached file titled What Makes Us Think) serve as a model? Could the Mystic Writing Pad serve as the metaphor for a ‘new theory of mental life’ (see attached file titled Freud – Mystic Writing Pad)? Or would a more inter-disciplinary perspective, where disciplinary methodologies interrupt, contradict, supplement and bleed into each other, be more enabling? In approaching the mind, should explanations follow the format of the laws of natural science or is it necessary to couch understanding in terms typically employed in the human sciences; are advances in cognitive-affective neuroscience arguably providing a new basis for incorporating both perspectives? Does the structure of the mind allow the embodiment of both conscious and unconscious mental processes? Would the neuro-dynamic interpretation of a complex mental functioning like dreaming offer us important insights? The questions are too many; and the answer is not blowing in the wind. Would we then need an altogether new thinking about thinking, a Copernican revolution of sorts, where course-correction would not suffice? How to make four equilateral triangles with six match sticks? If one thinks of the match sticks as lying flat the problem appears and actually is quite insoluble. But as soon as one thinks of solving it in a three dimensional space, by forming a pyramid, one finds the solution.

Suggested Readings (available with the CCS library):

Changeux, Jean-Pierre & Ricoeur, P. 2000. What makes us think? a neuroscientist and a philosopher
argue about ethics, human nature, and the brain. Translators- DeBevoise, M. B - New Jersey:
Princeton University Press. 

Freud, S. 1940. "A Note upon the “Mystic Writing-Pad” in International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. 21
(4), 469-74. (Tr. James Strachey.)

Date & Time: Saturday, 27th November 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

or details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

All are cordially invited
Coffee/Tea and Snacks will be served at 3:30 p.m

188.

Production of Knowledge in the Natural & Social Sciences

Co-hosted by
Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS), IISc, Bangalore
&
Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore

Session 14 : A Brief Introduction to Feminist Science Studies

by

Chayanika Shah
Visiting Faculty,
Tata Institute of Social Sciences,
Mumbai

&

Gita Chadha
Research Centre for Women's Studies,
SNDT University, Mumbai

Abstract:

Science studies have undertaken the enterprise of critically examining science and challenging its epistemological and ontological supremacy. Drawing upon various disciplinary concerns and methods, science studies have aimed to - one, locate science within historical, social and cultural contexts and two, examine how science reproduces existing social relations and cultural values through its language and its discourse.

While science studies critiqued science from various standpoints,feminist studies of science used the gender lens to examine the texts of science. Starting from issues of visibilising women in science and raising issues of access and retention, the critiques have - in recent years - gone beyond the issues of numbers. Feminist scholars have questioned and sought to redefine notions of the objectivity and value neutrality of scientific method; this has also posed questions to the 'factual' status of scientific knowledge.

Drawing upon the feminist movements, their critiques of the impact of science in constructing women's bodies and lives, the feminist studies of science have argued for a more embodied and less invasive science. Though there is no single position in the feminist approaches to science, the diversity of theoretical positions and concerns make the feminist studies of science a rich area of engagement crucial to both present day science studies and feminist studies. Some interesting imensions of feminist critiques have also been developed through feminist women in science furthering criticisms and analysis from within their disciplines while trying to teach and do research in science differently. This short module is an introduction to this field.

Suggested Readings (available with the CCS library):

Subramaniam, Banu. 2001. “Snow Brown and the Seven Detergents”: A Fable. In Women, Science and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science Studies. Eds. Wyer, Mary et al. New York Routledge.

Keller, Evelyn Fox. (2001). “Gender and science: An update.” In Women, Science and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science Studies. Eds. Wyer, Mary et al New York: Routledge.

Martin, Emily. 1996. “Egg and Sperm”. In Feminism and science. Evelyn Fox Keller & Helen Longino. (ed.) Oxford University Press.

Weasel, Lisa .2001. “Dismantling the self/other dichotomy in Science: Towards a feminist model of the immune system”. Hypatia 16:1 Winter p 27.

Date & Time: Saturday, 20th November 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

for details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

All are cordially invited
Coffee/Tea and Snacks will be served at 3:30 p.m

187.

Centre for Contemporary Studies

Presents a talk on:

"Fingerprints and Erasures: Mapping the Creative Process in Science"

by

Dr. Gita Chadha
Associate Project Director, Avabai Women's Archives,
Research Centre for Women's Studies, SNDT University, Mumbai

Abstract:

Why is the creative process of scientists interesting to the social scientist? Does a study of the phenomenon provide any insights into our understanding of how science as a culture is constructed by normative cultural structures? Can it tell us something about how scientists as individuals or as a community might reproduce subtle stereotypical notions of science and of society?

And most importantly how can it help scientists themselves to take a fresh approach to their work?This talk is based on a study of the creative process of doing science. In-depth interviews with a group of professional scientists from a premier scientific institution in India helped in mapping the knowledge-making process in science, from the 'private' world, which is the site of the individual scientist's work, to the public world, where the finished scientific result is presented.

Embedded within the theoretical triad of the sociology of science/knowledge, feminist critiques and post-colonial discourses of modern western science, the study revealed several features of the creative process of the scientists, their socialisation in the scientific community and issues surrounding the public dissemination of scientific results. However, the erasures that occur in the practice of science, the study argues, including that of intuition from the creative process, serve to conceal the social, feminine and non-western fingerprints within scientific research.

Date & Time: Thursday, 18th November 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

All are cordially invited
Coffee/Tea and Snacks will be served at 3:30 p.m

186.

Centre for Contemporary Studies

Presents a talk on:

by

Dr. Jacques Arnould
Expert, French Space Agency,CNES

Abstract

Building blocks just a billionth of a metre long: optimists see in them the basis for a new technical and industrial, medical and social revolution; pessimists worry about threats to our health, our environment and our freedoms. No one who is aware of these new possibilities remains indifferent, whether because of the astonishing discoveries made by nanoscience and the achievements and advances promised by nanotechnologies, or because of the considerable ignorance about the associated risks.

The national public debate on nanotechnology that took place in France between October 2009 and February 2010 provided the opportunity to catch up with the state of the art (and the science), on the economic and political commitments and what is truly at stake, regarding sectors that no doubt hold out great promise but are subject to strong international competition. It also revealed the highly sensitive nature of the subject in the eyes of the French. In a context of recent scandals involving DDT, asbestos and CFCs, public controversies about energy and nuclear waste or GM products, together with economic difficulties and constant concern about health and individual freedom, traditional methods of collective decision-making involving local communities are of limited efficacy.

Ordinary people find it difficult to debate the usefulness of nanotechnologies, the role of experts, the importance of preventative measures, warnings and monitoring associated with nanotechnologies and their products, or indeed the necessity of imposing moratoria on the use of nanotechnologies and nanoproducts, or even research. Discussion of the technical and political aspects of these issues is no substitute for a more philosophical and ethical approach: what will become of the natural world on account of mankind’s scientific and technical development? What will become of mankind itself, now that nanoscience and nanotechnologies can give reality to the dream of transcending human limitations?

Date & Time: Tuesday, 16th November 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

All are cordially invited
Coffee/Tea and Snacks will be served at 3:30 p.m

Production of Knowledge in the Natural & Social Sciences

Co-hosted by
Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS), IISc, Bangalore
&
Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore

Session 13 : Natural disasters, Laws of Science and Moral Work

by

Prof. Sanil V.
Department of Humanities & Social Sciences,
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

Abstract:

Mahatma Gandhi, in the wake of the Bengal earthquake in 1934 made a controversial remark that the disaster was a punishment to Indians for practicing untouchability. Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Laureate poet, openly criticized Gandhi for advocating such an unscientific view on the causes of natural events. However, Gandhi never retracted his statement. He saw a necessary law-like connection between the disaster and punishment that called for the moral work of self purification. Interestingly, Gandhi was ready to accept that a defender of untouchability could see a similar connection between the earthquake and Gandhi's fight against untouchability.

1n 1756, Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher published three essays on the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755. Before him, Voltaire and Rousseau wrote essays and poems based on the Lisbon earthquake. All these responses indicate the possibility of viewing natural events as occasions for moral labour. How can we relate nature and morality without regressing to pre-critical metaphysics? What are natural laws if they attend to moral necessity? Pursuing these questions may allow us to examine the recent moral and political debates around climate change and other environmental issues

Date & Time: Saturday, 13th November 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

for details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

Session 12A : Situating Knowledge in Participatory Processes – creating cocultures of knowledge practices

by

Dr. N.S. Anuradha
Department of Management Studies,
IISc, Bangalore

Abstract: Participatory processes are increasingly encouraged in agro-economic contexts of research. Participatory processes are used by scientists while introducing new ideas or while introducing new technologies into rural communities. Knowlegde plays a crucial role in participatory research practices. The definition and acceptance of what is perceived to be knowledge by all the primary and secondary beneficiaries involved influences the outcome of such participatory processes. The content and the context of knowledge of the target groups are vital to the formulation and the solution of the problem. The people who have access to this knowledge are pivotal to the success and failure of the solution implementation.

The context of farming is largely in a rural environment with its specific socio-political factors. One of the social factors that influence knowledge is the power structure. The other is the distribution of roles and responsibilities. What is known by an individual is also dependent on these factors. Science subscribes to definite methods of generation and validation of knowledge. What happens when these target groups engage in participatory processes of research and technology development?

The farmers look at problems and solutions quite differently from scientists. Knowledge processes are different from what lies within the acceptable realms of knowledge debate in the scientific community. For example reproducibility of results obtained from knwoledge processes take a second place to inclusion of socio-cultural factors influncing knowledge production. These perceptions influence attitudes to technology and implementation of research based solutions that have evolved from (non)-participatory processes. This talk will look at how the the creation of co-cultures of knowledge production in partcipatory research processes is fundamental to development in agro-economic communities.

Session 12B : Participatory Processes and Knowledge Production at the Social and Economic Divide

by

Prof. H.N. Chanakya
Centre for Sustainable Technologies
IISc, Bangalore

Abstract: The participatory processes within small farm agriculture involving participatory learning, participatory technology development and thereby participatory knowledge production has been the keystone and the main pillar of small-farm sustainable agriculture. This is also referred to as ‘low external input and sustainable agriculture’. In this approach small and marginal farmers take on the task of finding sustainable solutions, as defined by them, to several agronomic as well as farm family level problems. Like most agronomic-science research it begins with the identification of a problem by farmers themselves, but instead of calling in an expert from a nearby agricultural university or from a agri-chemical company as is usually the case, in this case many of the small-farmers’ groups join hands to begin observing the problem, attempt to identify its causes (most often pest/disease problems), look for locations where this problem is mollified or neutralized by natural or simple processes, apply these naturally driven processes in the test plots of their own and finally collate and validate data from all trials to evolve new and sustainable solutions. And when these solutions are used by other small farmers, they are gradually improved and adapted to each one’s farm. It is perhaps the first ever process where the farmer (the end user) participates in the research and has a say in whether he/she will use the knowledge or discard as not useful. It also empowers such farmers because small farm agriculture is a life long strife and struggle primarily between the various factors that affect yields and the farmer’s efforts in coping up with them. This process allows a life time of ‘knowledge’ production. This empowerment potential makes it a favourite among groups favouring sustainable development.

On another plane, this process emulates the many steps involved in the conventional /past processes of providing solutions (and also incorporates the large sample size required to assure statistical significance-a bugbear of agricultural research). Problem identification by farmer ? identification of causal agent (sometimes by the farmer many times by the specialist) ? formulating a research problem, if sufficiently novel ? trying from an existing basket of solutions (again done both by farmers and experts ? validating on a broad area /statistically significant scale ? release of solution to potential user through an intermediary, market system or directly (this is mostly with India). As we see, with the exception of the formulating the research problem, all steps are done by both the processes. However, on the other hand, the ‘knowledge’ produced in one case remains restricted to a specialist group. While in the participatory processes the results of the understanding is shared between all end-users. The end-users, the small farmers would also have played a major hand in shaping the potential solution – this does not happen in the first case.

This above difference brings in a strong political divide about how future knowledge needs to be produced. The small farmer empowering participatory process is preferred by the socially oriented sustainable development groups who see in this a sustainable solution similar to the Chinese proverb ‘teaching a man to fish’. The market oriented groups and a few puritans feel differently. The puritans feel that the key knowledge production step ‘formulating the problem in the realm of science’ does not take place in the pariticipatory process so no true knowledge is produced in the process. Many believe that market systems offers true competitive framework within which several ‘efficient’ solutions (and by corollary better knowledge) can be produced. When one examines any development field, or a field where larger developmental issues are dealt with, this divide emerges clearly wherein even professionals in the ‘true knowledge production process’ are divided. Considering the most of the future ‘sustainable solutions’ will be picked from nature, this debate becomes quite important. Take for example issues of vaccination, washing hands prior to eating, personal habits that avoid spread of epidemics, waste management, etc. To position this argument, it would be necessary to precede this discussion with a short introduction about participatory technology development as practiced among small farmers in India and how it is practiced and what has been the knowledge outcome and how it has been assessed while the other issues as to how it has helped sustainable development etc. will not be brought out at this juncture.

Date & Time: Saturday, 30th October 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

for details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

All are cordially invited
Coffee/Tea and Snacks will be served at 3:30 p.m

Session 11A: RESEARCH, MARKET AND POLICY: THE CONSTRUCTION OF AYURVEDA IN POSTCOLONIAL INDIA

by

Prof. Madhulika Banerjee
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
University of Delhi

Abstract:Ayurveda is one of the oldest text-based, medical knowledge systems of the world. It has been consistently practiced in the Indian sub-continent for the last several thousand years, and both its texts and practice have been carried across to lands further afield by knowledgeable travelers. In that process, it encountered other systems, other languages and it yielded enrichment all round. Faced with colonialism in the sub-continent, Ayurveda in its broadest sense had to deal with a different kind of encounter. Both its epistemology and its practice were called into question and it had to provide an effective opposition if it were to survive. I argue that one of the most interesting counters it posed was in the creation of the Ayurvedic Pharmaceutical. This was a transformed Ayurvedic medicine, a commodity available in the modern market, off-the–shelf, like most other biomedical products that began to make their appearance at the turn of the last century.

The post-colonial context continued the trend toward the hegemony of biomedicine and so did the further development of the Ayurvedic Pharmaceutical. Three factors were most responsible for its development: the realm of scientific research that concerned itself with providing a scientific interpretation of and a scientific orientation to Ayurveda; the new industry that developed to manufacture Ayurvedic pharmaceuticals on a large-scale and develop a market for it; and, the policies of the post-colonial state, by according it a certain position in the public health system, by the laws passed to regulate the production of these pharmaceuticals, by the setting up of special councils and terms for research and education and most recently, into ‘mainstreaming’ it. Together with these, the global trend toward herbal medicines has drawn Ayurvedic pharmaceuticals into the international market.

I further argue that all of these developments served not only to nurture the development of the Ayurvedic Pharmaceutical, but it seems also the knowledge system of Ayurveda itself. The new parameters of efficacy and economy as enunciated by these three, now four sectors, deeply affect all aspects of this knowledge system. As with every development, however, there are those that run counter to it and it remains to be seen as to which of those would be more powerful in the long run.

Suggested Readings (available with the CCS library):

1.Introduction to Leslie, C. & A. Young. 1992 eds. Paths to Asian Medical Knowledge, Berkeley, University of California Press.

 
2. Introduction to Sivaramakrishnan, K.  2008. Old Potions, New Bottles: Recasting Indigenous Medicine in Colonial Punjab 1850-1945, Hyderabad, Orient Blackswan. 

Session 11B: Who knows? Some lessons from a Bengali Marxist and a philosopher feminist

by

Dr. Asha Achuthan

Faculty Consultant,

Centre for Contemporary Studies,IISc, Bangalore

Abstract:

It has been the popular and intellectual consensus that philosophers interpret and activists transform the world; that ideologies speak for the oppressed; that this speech constitutes a critique of knowledge systems. Underlying this consensus are further presuppositions regarding the character of knowledge, knowledge systems, the knower, and of critique. Alternatives, then, are suggested in the form of alternative systems, canons.

The 20th century might be said to have seen a shift from the normative to the descriptive, with effects on the understanding of power (centralized to disaggregated) and its nexuses with knowledge (pure to hybrid), therefore on the political response to it (‘isms’ to negotiations), and on policy, so that this effective relationship between politics and knowledge too changes, as does the meaning of alternatives.

This session tries to demonstrate some of this through an overview of critiques of science in the Indian context, and asks the further question – where then do we arrive with respect to the form and function of critique? Is it useful as a cognitive or a descriptive activity? Do critique and knowledge-making represent bases for different kinds of disciplinary activity or are they co-constitutive?

Suggested Readings (available with the CCS library):

1.Kuhn, T. 1996. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. (1970). Chapters VI, VII.

2.Chaudhury, A. K. 1987. “In Search of a Subaltern Lenin”. In Subaltern Studies V: Writings on South Asian History and Society. Ed R. Guha. New Delhi: Oxford
      University Press. 236-51.

3. Haraway, D. 1996. “Situated Knowledges:  The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” In Feminism and Science. Eds. E. F. Keller & H. E. Longino. New York: Oxford University Press. 249-63.

Date & Time:Saturday, 23rd October 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

for details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

All are cordially invited
Coffee/Tea and Snacks will be served at 3:30 p.m

Session 10 A : " Visualizing Nature"

Session 10 B: "Cultural Entomology"

by

Prof. Barrett Anthony Klein
Section of Integrative Biology
University of Texas, Austin

Abstract: 10A: Visualizing Nature
Communicating visual information effectively is a challenge, particularly when subjects are complex, abstract, invisible, or extinct. I will present some triumphant victories and dismal catastrophes in the quest to communicate information visually. Case studies will span age-old media to cutting-edge visual technologies, and include colossal viruses, imitation dung balls, and robotic frogs. We can discuss the strengths and weaknesses of scientific visualization, and the evolution of esthetics. Please bring examples of what you believe to be the best and worst visuals that attempt to transmit information in a clear manner.

Suggested Readings (available with the CCS library):

1. Martin Kemp. “From science in art to the art of science”, in Nature, vol. 434, 17 march 2005. www.nature.com/nature

2. Ryan C. Taylor*†, Barrett A. Klein†, Joey Stein‡ & Michael J. Ryan†§. “Faux frogs: multimodal signalling and the value of robotics in animal behaviour”, in Animal Behaviour, 2008, 76, 1089e1097. Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

10 B: Cultural Entomology
Parasites to pollinators, insects impact human culture in a surprising number of ways. Evidence of insects as sources of nutrition, medicine, and technology, as mythological symbols, and inspiration for art, literature, and music, date to our earliest historical records and surround us in countless forms today. I will share examples of cultural entomology, highlighting insects in art. We can discuss possible reasons for insects’ omnipresence in human culture, the prospect of culture in non-human animals, and the future of cultural entomology. Please bring examples of cultural entomology that originate from India.

Suggested Readings (available with the CCS library):

1 Klein, B. A. 2007. “Insects and Humans: a relationship recorded in visual art”. In Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships. Bekoff, M.,ed. Greenwood Publ., Portsmouth, NH.

2. Klein, B. A. 2002. “Par for the palette : INSECTS AND ARACHNIDS AS ART MEDIA”, in Les insectes dans la tradition orale – Insects in oral literature and traditions Élisabeth MOTTE-FLORAC & Jacqueline M. C. THOMAS, éds 2002, Paris-Louvain, Peeters-SELAF (Ethnosciences).

Date & Time: Saturday, 16th October 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

for details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

181.

Centre for Contemporary Studies

Presents a Talk on :

"The Technology of Obsolescence"

by

Prof. J.P.S. Uberoi
Formerly Professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics,
Delhi University

Abstract

Current trends especially in relation to new technologies in high-technology fields like nuclear energy, information technology, composite materials, biotechnology, or aerospace engineering, are of very high rates of obsolescence. The combination of military industrial complexes and commercial capitalism leads to very high rates of wastage in the accelerated development of new technologies to replace old ones, so that the emphasis is less on production than on vogue. High technologies have three kinds of life – industrial life, market life, and vogue life. It is this third life that the speaker will dwell on in some detail.

Date & Time:Friday, 15th October 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

All are cordially invited
Tea/Coffee will be served at 3:30 p.m.

Presents a Talk on

“SLEEPING IN A SOCIETY: Patterns, plight and purpose of sleep in a bustling hive of honey bees”

by

Prof. Barrett Anthony Klein
Section of Integrative Biology
University of Texas, Austin

Abstract:

What is sleep, which animals sleep, and what happens when we don't get enough of it? Sleep can take bizarre forms and I will share ideas relating to sleep, including what it means to sleep in a society… of honey bees. I study the dynamics of sleep within colonies of European honey bees (Apis mellifera) by producing sleep "maps", investigating flexibility of sleep schedules, and testing for sleep deprivation's impacts on honey bee communication. Feel free to join me for a discussion of sleep, sociality, and to think about how sleep deprivation can impact an insect colony.

Date & Time: Thursday, 14th October 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Session 9: Mastery over the Supernatural: Technology and the Dialectic of
Enlightenment

Prof. S.V. Srinivas
Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Culture & Society, Bangalore

Abstract: In their critique of the European Enlightenment, Horkheimerand Adornoargue that the mastery of nature and other human beings are important features of the Enlightenment. Further, they draw attention to how the Enlightenment project has the tendency to double back on itself to produce the exact opposite of what it sets out to do. The Enlightenment is in a dialectical relationship with the anti-Enlightenment.

In this session we will examine the implications of the Horkheimerand Adornothesis for understanding how technology mediates and indeed re-constitutes the domain of the pre-modern, the unreasonable and the irrational. The argument will be made by analyzing popular cinema where modern technology routinely induces obsessive and extreme responses in most contexts where it exists. We will look at categories of obsessive film viewers that the Indian cinema produces: the devotee who is possessed by goddesses while watching spectacular supernatural events on screen and the fan who believes that his favorite star is a hero in real life. Is this a sign of the persistence of pre-modern irrational modes of religiosity in modern times or evidence that technology has transformed both religion and politics?

Suggested Readings (available with the CCS library):

Max Horkheimerand Theodor Adorno, "The Concept of Enlightenment" in The
Dialectic of Enlightenment. New York: Continuum, 1944. (3-42p).

S.V. Srinivas, "Chapter 2 -After NTR: Telugu Mass Film and Cinematic Populism" in Megastar: Chiranjeeviand Telugu Cinema after N.T. Rama Rao.New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009 (72-128p).

Date & Time:Saturday, 9th October 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

for details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

Session 8: Science Fiction, Literature and Gender

Prof. Amie Elizabeth Parry
Professor, Department of English
National Central University, Chungli, Taiwan

Abstract :

This session will introduce course participants to the literary genre of science fiction and contemporary critical debates concerning the role of gender in this genre. The first half of the session outlines the debates concerning definitions of science fiction (and of literature). In addition to the terms “science” and “fiction,” we will examine “estrangement and cognition”, and the relevance of these terms and debates to questions of disciplinarity and knowledge production. Leading critics have argued influentially that sf is a literature written according to the objectifying principals of scientific method, rather than the subjectifying mode of the literary canon. We will cover science fiction’s “radical potential” for social critique which exists, for example, in the unusual temporality of the genre whether or not it is actualized in individual texts. The second half of the session turns to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) , often considered the first science fiction novel , as a case study for some of the issues introduced in the first half. Both parts of the session will consist of lectures followed by seminar discussion.

Date & Time: Saturday, 2nd October 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

by

Prof. Amita Chatterjee
Professor, Department of Philosophy, Jadavpur University

A compact overview of these positions will lead to the puzzling question: how to do the science of situated cognition? To answer this question we need to look very briefly at how situated theorists are accounting for situated representation, situated perception, situated conception, situated rationality, situated problem-solving, situated perspectives on learning and emotion and guess the contour of a future philosophy of science.

Session 7B:: The Emotional Brain: Imprints of Life History

by

Dr. Vidita Vaidya
Reader, Department of Biological Sciences,
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,
Mumbai

Abstract: Our research group is interested in understanding the mechanisms that underlie the lasting effects of early life emotional experience on adult behavior. We are keen to identify the impact of early life experience, both positive and negative, on the neurocircuits that modulate emotion. Does early life history shape the development of emotional neurocircuitry similar to the critical period plasticity observed in sensory circuits? Or does history leave epigenetic imprints on the genome within specific neurons, altering the expression of key candidate molecules that influence mood related behavior? I will discuss our work demonstrating the consequences of early experience in shaping long lasting changes in circuit responses to specific neurotransmitter, epigenetic marks on a key trophic factor, brain derived neurotrophic factor, altered structural plasticity and persistent behavior changes in anxiety and cognitive behavior. I will also discuss the specific issues related to extrapolation of these data to humans.

Date & Time:Saturday, 25th September 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Insitute of Science, Bangalore 560012

for details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

by

Prof. Michel Chaouli
Director, Institute of German Studies,Adjct. Professor of Comparative Literature & Cognitive Science,Indiana University, USA

Date & Time:Saturday, 18th September 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract: I start from the premise that the humanities (or human sciences), just like the natural sciences, have a basic orientation towards truth. This is why one may speak of them as sciences. But what sort of truth is this and what does the orientation towards it consist of? This is where things between the two projects of natural and human sciences begin to diverge, for I will argue that in the human sciences the observer -with all of his or her historical and affective baggage -cannot be subtracted from the process of orientating towards truth and constructing knowledge. This is not a bug but a feature. Knowledge in the human sciences would essentially miss its mark were it to evacuate itself of the subjective conditions of observation. Yet despite this commitment to subjectivity the human sciences open up towards truth. How this happens, is the subject of this talk.

Suggested Readings

1. Wilhelm Dilthey, The Formation of the Historical World in the Human Sciences, ed. R. Makkreeland F. Rodi(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002 [originally DerAufbaudergeschichtlichenWelt in den
Geisteswissenschaften, 1910), pp. 101-109, 139-43.

2. Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations(New York: Basic Books, 1962), 33-65.3. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, second ed. (New York: Continuum, 1999 [originally Wahrheitund Methode, 1960), 3-42 (Chapter 1).

for details on the course: onknowinghow.blogspot.com
url: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/Welcome.html

"Kant and the Idea of Life: The Use of Teleological Concepts in Biology"

by

Prof. Michel Chaouli
Director, Institute of German Studies,Adjct. Professor of Comparative Literature & Cognitive Science,Indiana University, USA

Date & Time:Thursday, 16th September 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract

In his Critique of Judgment (1790), Immanuel Kant makes the argument that knowledge about organisms is impossible without the use of teleological judgments, that is, judgments that use the concept of purpose or end. Only if we understand organisms as purposefully organized, Kant insists, can we make sense of them. I will try to elucidate the outlines of the argument and why it has the potential of continuing to speak to us today. My argument will be that we are by no means beyond teleological thinking when it comes to organic nature. I will close by suggesting a bridge between the teleological argument and Kant's argument about beauty; this bridge is to be found in the concept of life as such.

by

Prof. Deepak Kumar
Professor, History of Science and Education, ZakirHusain Centre for
Educational Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Date & Time:Saturday, 11th September 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract: The onset of the 21st century was treated with a great deal of media hype and forecasts as a century of knowledge and incredible developments. As we move to the close of the first decade of the new century, the hype refuses to die down. Claims about knowledge-society and knowledge-economy (even in the midst of an apparent economic melt-down) continue to pour in as if the earlier societies or economies were not shaped or influenced by knowledge. Perhaps every age is an age ofknowledge and change. How did the Indians feel when they entered the twentieth century? How did they look at the then existing techno-scientific knowledge? How different was it going to be from the past?The beginnings saw the apogee of the Empire but things were to change soon. What was their vision of 'new' India? How was 'new' knowledge perceived?What new strategies were thought of? On the new agenda figured technical education, scientific research, medical intervention, agricultural experiments, institutional dissemination of knowledge.Differences of opinion and controversies dogged the discourse
all the time.The lecture will discuss not only the contours of the 'development discourse' but also the views that still lay on the margins.

Suggested Readings

Deepak Kumar. Science and the Raj: A Study of British India. Oxford
University Press, 2006.

Benjamin Zachariah.Developing India: an intellectual and social history, c.
1930-50. OUP, 2005

by

Prof. Christoph Möllers
Chair for Public Law and Legal Philosophy, Faculty of LawHumboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Date & Time:Saturday, 4th September 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract: Since the enlightenment legal thinking has been suspected to be just a power technique, not a form of knowledge that produces true propositions. This suspicion seems to be confirmed by everyday experiences in which lawyers try to give good reasons for every possible result. The module will to try to reconstruct the rationality of certain forms of legal reasoning.

Suggested Readings

1. Oliver Wendell Holmes. The Collected Legal Papers. New York: Dover Publications, 2007.

2. Brian Leiter. NaturalisingJurisprudence: Essays on American Legal Realism and Naturalism in Legal Philosophy. OUP. 2007.

by

Prof. Rajeev Bhargava
Director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi

Date & Time:Saturday, 28th August 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:

It is part of the orthodoxy in the social sciences that explanations of social phenomena are deficient if they ignore the agent's own point of view and that only methodological individualism makes the perspective of the agent the linchpin of its programme.  Thus a consensus appears to exist among social scientists that methodological individualism is trivially true. Bhargava challenges this consensus.  He defends his view by unmasking the crucial ontological assumption of individualists that the intentional ingredient in action is a mental state existing in the individual, and that it can be known without reference to anything outside one's mind.  He argues that intentions also lie embedded in social practices external to the individual mind, and that without an understanding of such practices even those intentions that lie in the heads of individuals remain unknown.  Thus Bhargava rehabilitates a non-individualist strategy that encourages a contextual study of individual actions and an enquiry into social contexts relatively independent of the study of the actions of individuals.

Presents a talk on

“Micro Level Perception and Institutional Response: Impact of Climate Change in Meghalaya”

by

Prof. Kailash Chandra Malhotra

Emeritus Professor, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata

Date & Time: Friday, 27th August 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:Robust models have been developed to predict macro level impact of climate change. However, micro level changes and impacts have not been studied. The objective of the discussion-presentation is to share and discuss results of a micro level study we carried out in Meghalaya to understand people's perceptions on climate change, the copping strategies they have adopted and whether the traditional institutions of governance are effective under the changing scenario. Using primarily recall methodology, we evaluated temporal trends in natural calamities- drought, floods, storms - and their impact on water, agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, wild biodiversity. We conclude that a lot of changes have occurred in the studied sites. Several methodological issues regarding whether the observed changes are solely due to climate change were encountered. New institutional arrangements need to be crafted for developing long term monitoring mechanisms and coping strategies at the micro level.

Thinking Across Disciplines

This is to be a set of discussions led by Raghunandan Velankar and Kshitija Wason, Library and Writing Fellows at Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Centre for Contemporary Studies (CSCS), Bangalore.

Date & Time: Monday, 26 August 2010, 10.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Insitute of Science, Bangalore 560012

CCS and CSCS would like to see this discussion as an occasion to promote dialogue between disciplines, fields, and researchers - cology, Cultural Studies, Political Science and Anthropology among them - on the questions of environment, "indigenous peoples", politics, and conservation, in the spirit of their work on interdisciplinary and integration. This is also an effort to promote collaboration between institutions that are host to different disciplines and methodologies. We look forward to your insights
and inputs to help promote such a dialogue.

Attendance by invitation only.

Presents a talk on

“Between the Monsoon and the Sea: Re-visualizing Mumbai’s Terrain”

by

Prof. Dilip da Cunha and Dr. Anuradha Mathur

University of Pennsylvania, USA

Date & Time: Monday, 23rd August 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:This presentation will focus on our most recent work on Mumbai where people have been cultured to see the sea and monsoon as outsiders and visitors. It is a visualization that lies at the heart of design practices, planning attitudes and scientific investigations. It perpetuates a language of landscape that has set Mumbai on a trajectory of war with the sea and monsoon, encouraging practices directed to prediction and control. We offer an alternative that sees Mumbai in an estuary, a fluid gradient where solutions to problems of settlement are necessarily resolved by building resilience in the face of complexity.

by

Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar
Centre for Ecological Sciences & Centre for Contemporary Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Date & Time:Saturday, 21st August 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:

Some species of insects such as ants, bees and wasps organize themsleves into colonies with social organization and integration, division of labour and caste systems that parallel if not better human societies. The rules governing the workings of such insect societies are of obvious interest to us. I and my students have spent many years studying and understanding the workings of one such tropical wasp society. One of our most interesting findings is that the wasps are extremely aggressive to, and highly intolerant of, other members of their species which do not belong to their colonies. However, they are highly tolerant of each other and display almost no aggression to colony members even when there is considerable scope for conflict. In this talk I will describe and contrast such “war” towards foreigners and “peace” with insiders, illustrate our research methodology that permits an understanding of these insect societies and initiate a discussion on what we as humans can learn form such an understanding.

&

Centre for Contemporary Studies

Announce a Discussion Meeting on

"Synthetic Life : Myth and Reality"

by

Prof. K.P. Gopinathan,

FNA, Dept. of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science

&

Prof. D. Balasubramanian,

FNA, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad

Prof. R. Gadagkar

FNA, Centre for Contemporary Studies, Indian institute of Science

will preside

Date & Time: Thursday, 19th August 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Faculty Hall, Indian Insitute of Science, Bangalore - 560012

Tea/Coffee: 4.00 PM

RSVP: Prof S Ranganathan, FNA
INSA Bangalore Chapter | Email: rangu2001_at_yahoo.com

Session 2: Interdisciplinary Study: A Practice of Convergence

by

Prof. Rajan Gurukkal
Vice Chancellor, M.G. University, Kottayam

Date & Time:Saturday, 14th August 2010, 2.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Over the past few decades several non-conventional areas of knowledge, across physical, natural and social sciences have emerged as a result of intellectual practice transgressing disciplinary boundaries, helping disciplines draw closer to one another. The practice has been a process of convergence of disciplines, to the extent of shedding their contours, boundaries and insularity. The session seeks to review the ontology and epistemology of this distinct mode of production of knowledge beyond disciplines and across their interfaces, through practice of convergence, leading to path-breaking, far reaching and non-linear effects, what renders interdisciplinary plausible.

Inauguration of the Third Edition of the Course on
“Production of Knowledge in the Natural & Social Sciences”

Co-hosted by

Centre for Contemporary Studies, IISc, & Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore
on
Saturday, 7th August 2010, 2:00 p.m.
at the
Centre for Contemporary Studies,
(Formerly TIFR Mathematics Building), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Introduction and Welcome:
Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar, CCS and Prof. Tejaswini Niranjana, CSCS

Inaugural Address:
Prof. Sanjay Kumar Biswas,
Professor and Chair, Deparment of Mechanical Engineering, IISc

Tea/Coffee and Snacks (at 3.00 p.m.) 

Followed by the First Session of the Course

Session 1 A: Integrating Higher Education:

Thinking Beyond the Disciplines
This session will discuss the current situation of Indian higher education and speculate on what has given rise to the predicament in which we find ourselves. Taking the example of the human sciences, we will explore some of the key challenges being faced by both pedagogy and research, and suggest what this might mean for emergent configurations of knowledge production.
By Prof. Tejaswini Niranjana
Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore

Session 1 B: The Very Idea of Knowledge as Production
Today, we all seem to agree that knowledge is not a neutral mirror image of the world but the product of the creative acts of a finite subject which is subjected to certain a priori conditions.  The stand point from which to ask questions about knowledge has shifted from the object to the subject. Imagination has come to occupy a central place in our conception of knowledge. This is the meaning of the famous Copernican revolution in philosophy. Many predicaments of contemporary thought – the separation between natural and social sciences, suspicion of absolute knowledge, rejection of speculative metaphysics etc – can be traced to this revolution. This session will discuss some questions concerning knowledge, production and the subject.

By Prof. Sanil V.
Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Delhi

Presents a talk on

“Interdisciplinarity in environmental research: Insights from 25 years of crossing boundaries”

by

Dr. Sharachchandra Lele

Senior Fellow and Convenor, Centre for Environment & Development, ATREE, Bangalore

Date & Time: Monday, 2nd August 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Presents a talk on

“Ensuring daughter survival in Tamil Nadu, India”

by

Dr. Sharada Srinivasan
York University, Canada

and

Arjun S Bedi
Internationl Insitute of Social Studies, Erasmus Univeristy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Date & Time: Thursday, 22nd July 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:The south Indian state of Tamil Nadu is a relatively recent entrant to the list of Indian states exhibiting the phenomenon of ‘missing girls’. Notwithstanding the state’s relatively recent history of daughter elimination, the government and NGOs in Tamil Nadu have been active in terms of data collection to track gender differences in survival and in introducing interventions to prevent daughter elimination. Against this background, this paper has two aims. First, it provides a temporal and spatial analysis of patterns of daughter deficits in Tamil Nadu over the period 1996 to 2003. Second, it undertakes an examination of the modus operandi, underlying assumptions, strengths and weaknesses of various interventions and assesses their effect on daughter elimination.

Presents a talk on

“Digital humanities: How social sciences may benefit from the digital revolution?"

by

Prof. Dominique Boullier
Professor at Sciences Po, Paris

Date & Time: Friday, 9th July 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Presents a talk on

“How is the Individuality of a Face Recognised?"

by

Prof. M.K. Unnikrishnan
Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal University,
Manipal

Date & Time: Thursday, 17th June 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:

Faces are believed to be remembered as complex multidimensional vectors, necessitating exhaustive point- by- point comparisons for face-recognition. A simpler, quicker and more economical process could be modeled on 'exception-reporting', where each face is remembered qualitatively for its features that differ from the prototypical average face, which is also the koinophillic fittest or most attractive.

Date & Time: Tuesday, 15th June 2010, 10.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Attendance by invitation only.

Presents a talk on

"Knowledges of life and Responses to Death: Medicine and Post/ Modernity"

by

Dr. Anirban Das
Fellow in Cultural Studies,
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata

Date & Time: Monday, 10th May 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:

The concept of the living body is intimately related with the concept of death. At two different levels. The three dimensional spatial structure of the living healthy body is known through the knowledge of the body that is dead. Clinic and anatomy are inseparable. At a second level, normalcy cannot be defined without defining abnormalcy and at the other end of abnormalcy, the presence of death. Death is in a sense the ultimate other that defines the normative dimension of the healthy body. The problem of the relationship between the living body and death is articulated centrally through the relationships between what is known, the act of knowing, and the unknown. The doctor experiences the ethical in his respect for the adversary, death. The ultimate singularity of this one event reflects the unanticipatability of the event – of any event not reducible to the predictions of a prior calculus. In this paper, I try to bring out the gendered connotations of knowing the living body and the larger ethical imports of a responsibility towards death.

Presents a talk on

"Scientific Laws: Do They Pose a Challenge to the Essentialist Theory of Laws? "

by

Mr.S K Arun Murthi
Research Scholar, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore

Date & Time: Thursday, 6th May 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:

Much recent work in the philosophical analysis of laws has come up with a view known as dispositional-essentialist theory, where the laws of nature are metaphysically necessary. It is one of the theories of laws that has gained popularity in recent times. This theory has been strongly advocated by Brian Ellis, Alexander Bird and Anjan Chakravartty. Such a view of laws is an interpretation of the property theory of laws, which claims that laws of nature involve properties. Such a theory has not examined sufficiently whether it can account for scientific laws within its framework. Is the theory of laws that they have proposed tenable for scientific laws? In my thesis I examine how scientific laws pose a challenge to the dispositional-essentialist theory. The larger part of the argument of this thesis also attempts to provide a general critique of property theory of laws.

Presents a talk on

"The Chromosome Woman: E.K. Janaki Ammal and the Re-ordering of the South Asian Enivronment 1897-1984)"

by

Dr. Savithri Preetha Nair
New India Foundation Fellow,

Date & Time: Tuesday, 13th April 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:

In her illustrated talk, Nair outlines the life and work of a pioneering Indian woman scientist, Edavaleth Kakkat Janaki Ammal (1897-1984), who played a significant role in shaping plant genetics and the debate on the role of science in the emergence of the Indian nation. The first Indian woman to obtain a doctorate in the sciences, Janaki pioneered researches in academic ethnobotany, the systematic study of the dynamic relationship between peoples, plants and environments, to counter the aggressive strategies adopted by Indian agronomists, in the name of national security and progress. Pioneering a plant geography trajectory within the practice of plant breeding and genetics in India, Janaki's focus was ecological rather than economic, nationalist or ideological. Very importantly, she saw herself as a member of the international community of science rather than as a representative of a specific caste, race, or nation. By mapping the origin and evolution of cultivated plants across space and time, through cytogenetics, plant geography and a sound knowledge of the cultural uses of plants, Janaki aimed to contribute to a grand history of human cultural evolution. Nair's forthcoming book on Janaki Ammal will be the first ever full length study on the life and science of an Asian woman scientist.

Podcast (audio recording) of the talk is available in mp3 format (65.8 Mb). (For more podcasts please click here...)

Presents a talk on

"Development of Evolutionary theorizing in Darwin's Notebooks 1837 - 1839"

by

Dr. Abhijeet Bardapurkar
Visiting Fellow, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education,
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai

Date & Time: Monday, 29th March 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:

The years spanning 1837 to 1839 were the most fruitful years in the intellectual life of Charles Darwin, for it is during this time that he had thought about most of the ideas on which he would work for rest of his life. He wrote Notebooks B, C, D and E from July 1837 to July 1839. A number of historians (and a psychologist Howard E. Gruber) have studied the development and structure of Darwin’s theorizing during the years 1837-39. I will present a brief of these historical studies in this talk.

Podcast (audio recording) of the talk is available in mp3 format (69.2 Mb). (For more podcasts please click here...)

Presents a talk on

“Causal conceptions(of the living world) in the Presocratic Greek thought”

by

Dr. Abhijeet Bardapurkar
Visiting Fellow, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education,
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai

Date & Time: Thursday, 25th March 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:

Science, as is known today, has parts of its roots in the ancient Greek thought. In this talk, I'll sketch some of the conceptions of earliest known, presocratic, Greek thinkers. Of particular interest will be their ideas and explanations of the living world

Presents a talk on

“EINSTEIN AND INDIA”

by

Prof. C.V. Vishveshwara
Former Senior Professor, Indian Institute of Astrophysics,
Emeritus Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium,
Bangalore

Date & Time: Thursday, 11th March 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:
Einstein never visited India. Nevertheless, he had significant and interesting interactions with a number of Indians. The physicist Satyendra Nath Bose's correspondence with him resulted in the highly important Bose-Einstein statistics. Einstein and Rabindanath Tagore had discussions on a variety of topics. Einstein exchanged several letters with Jawaharlal Nehru and met him for a long talk about India. Apart from interacting with such celebrities, he never failed to answer queries from total strangers. Einstein had great admiration for Mahatma Gandhi and his priciples. They exchanged messages just once, but their respect for each other was mutual and sincere. We shall discuss these and other aspects related to Einstein in the Indian context based on documents some of which are rare and unusual.

Centre for Contemporary Studies

Presents a talk on

“Phases and faces: Bronze and high-tin bronze metalware traditions from southern India”

by

Dr. Sharada Srinivasan
Associate Professor
National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore

Date & Time: Thursday, 4th February 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:

This lecture summarises some of the speakers original ethnometallurgical and archaeometallurgical investigations made over the past decade and half on archaeological bronzes which demonstrate the ways in which the properties of bronze of different compositions including high and lower tin bronze were skilfully exploited in Indian and south Indian antiquity to get a range of artefacts suited to specific functions. The skills in making bronze statuary is best exemplified by the 10th century Chola figurines of Tamil Nadu with continuing icon making traditions at Swamimalai. At the same time, the use of specialised bronzes of a higher tin composition known as high-tin bronzes exploiting the properties of intermetallic compound alloys has been established through these studies. It is also demonstrated that from early antiquity going back to the south Indian megalithic period, an interesting alloy of bronze, exploiting the properties of the beta intermetallic compound was used to make elegant vessels and continuing into recent times to make vessels, musical instruments. On the other hand the properties of the intermetallic high-tin delta compound of bronze are still exploited to make fine mirrors in Kerala. Thus the paper covers many fascinating facets of the alloys of bronze and correlations between the ‘phases’ and ‘faces ‘of bronze.

152.

Centre for Contemporary Studies

Presents a talk on

“Galileo, Carnot and the Physics of Computation”

by

Prof. Edward Fredkin
Visiting Research Professional at Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University, USA

Date & Time: Friday, 8th January 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall,

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:

Two of the wonderful ground rules for the development of newly invented science, utilized by both Galileo and Carnot, are the concepts of studying a closed system, and further, studying a system without friction. The logic is simple and straightforward: If we want to find a law of nature, then our experiments, whether carried out or simply imagined, are greatly simplified by eliminating forces or energy flow between the “outside” and the “inside” of the closed system. One way of accomplishing this is to imagine that the temporal evolution of state takes place without friction, which could contaminate the observed data by converting energy of motion into lost heat.

Both falling objects and thermal engines undergo temporal evolution of state; which means that they share that property with physics in general. As to friction, systems from the scale of gravitationally bound collections of Galaxies down to molecules and atoms, all operate with essentially zero friction. The most important property of such systems is that the laws that constrain their temporal evolution are generally exactly reversible.

On the other hand, the operation of nearly all theoretical models of computation, from automata theory to Turing machines to general computer science are not merely contaminated by friction but they are totally dominated by friction; obscuring any possible connections between the functions of theoretical models of computation and theoretical physics. All of the Boolean gates in ordinary computers are necessarily always converting energy into heat

By merely emulating what Galileo and Carnot might have done if computers had been introduced back then, we can finally make that connection between digital computation and theoretical physics.

151.

Centre for Contemporary Studies

Presents a talk on

"Embodied Histories? How Rhythm Cultures Challenge Postcolonial Methodlogies"

by

Dr. Ananya Jahanara Kabir

Senior Lecturer in Postcolonial English, AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellow School of English, University of Leeds, U.K

.

Date & Time: Thursday, 7th January 2010, 4.00 p.m

Venue : Centre for Contemporary Studies Seminar Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012

Abstract:

This paper will articulate my emergent thoughts on the relationship between knowledges encoded in practices of the body, such as dance and music, and textual, analytical forms of knowledge production, including methodologies for studying 'postcolonial' societies and cultures from across the Global South. By using rhythm cultures from Latin America, Africa and South Asia in contrast and conversation (such as in diasporic spaces and through oceanic transmission routes) I will discuss both the historic difficulties and the philosophical rewards of carrying out such a research agenda. My own attempts, as a South Asian academic, to understand Latin American/ Carribean embodied histories through listening and dancing to Cuban music will be used as a self-reflexive commentary on the limits and possibilities of attempting this version of 'South-South dialogue'.

Return to CCS home page