Investigating the “Science” in “Eastern Religions”: A Methodological Inquiry

Abstract

This article explores some of the understandings of “science” that are often employed in the literature on “science and Eastern religions.” These understandings crucially shape the raging debates between the avid proponents and the keen detractors of the thesis that Eastern forms of spirituality are uniquely able to subsume the sciences into their metaphysical–axiological horizons. More specifically, the author discusses some of the proposed relations between “science” and “Eastern religions” by highlighting three themes: (a) the relation between science and metaphysics, (b) the relation between science and experience, and (c) the European origins of science. The analysis of these relations requires a methodological inquiry into some of the culturally freighted valences of “science,” “metaphysics,” and “experience.”

FOCUS AND FLEXIBILITY: ZYGON'S PROFILE AND PRACTICE

“…What is the social role of the claim that something is “science”? In a previous issue, we had articles on eugenetics (Prince ), on claims that modern science can be found in the Qur'an (Bigliardi ), on images of science in film (Jones, ), and on the “science” in “Eastern religions” (Barua ). The last topic, science in the context of “Eastern” religions, returns in three contributions in this issue: by Jeff Wilson on research on meditation, by Oliver Zambon and Thomas Aechtner on ambiguities about evolution and creationism in the ISKCON (Hare Krishna) movement, and by Renny Thomas and Robert M. Geraci on religious rituals in the Indian Institute of Science.…”