Conceptualising Human Nature and Re-imagining Social Science: Towards a Dialogue with Indian Intellectual Tradition
Since its inception, the social sciences have been intertwined with modern Western philosophy. Today, when humanity is standing at the ‘end of time’ in the sense of reaching the limits of modernity, there is a need to ask if social sciences need to decouple with modern Western philosophy and engage with other philosophical traditions of the world. One of the crucial starting points in rethinking social sciences could be the concept of human nature in modern Western philosophy, which serves as the foundational principle of social sciences. This paper treats it as its Poorva Paksha, which suffers from three kinds of fallacies: a) De-totalised ontology: treating humans merely as self-seeking ‘possessive individuals’ or as ‘Noble savage’, innately good. b) Universalizing the particularities: developing a theory of society and institutions based on one or the other concept of human beings and assuming that as universal for every form of society. c) Ignoring complexity: treating humans and society as static and developing a non-linear frame for social sciences. These three fallacies have thrown severe challenges to social sciences, which demand a paradigm shift. This paper explores the possibility of an Uttar Paksha based on the concept of human nature available in Indian Intellectual Traditions. It addresses whether the concept of Purusharth and Vikar, available in this tradition, has the potential to overcome these fallacies and provide a more comprehensive theory of human nature. It attempts to re-imagine social science with the help of this alternative concept of human nature. The proposal for a paradigm shift is still at an initial stage, and it has to provide satisfactory answers to a set of questions most frequently asked: Can we talk about human nature in general? Do we need to use the concept of human nature as a basis for social science? Is this proposed return to Indian Intellectual Tradition another form of ethnocentrism? The paper will argue that there is a need for dialogue between different intellectual traditions to arrive at a more comprehensive idea of human nature, which is fundamental for understanding society and developing any explanatory theory of social reality.
