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INTERJELIGIOUS DIALOGUE
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Exploration of General Systems Theory and Jain Philosophy Could Provide New Ways of Looking at the Field of Bioethics By Surendra Singh Pokharna
This paper is dedicated to my mother, Shrimati Lahar Kunwar Pokharna, who expired on October 30, 2012. It is through her inspiration and education that I learned Jainism and Science both.
Abstract
Bioethics is a field which involves medical sciences on the one hand and disciplines like religion, philosophy, and politics on the other. General Systems Theory (GST) is an attempt to combine these different and somewhat opposite disciplines in a unified way. In this formalism of GST, information and entropy/order alone are the only measurements which are primary in nature. Jainism, which evolved from India, appears to be compatible with GST. Jainism talks about spiritual evolution of soul where, knowledge and orderiliness seems to increase not only at an individual level but also at a global level. An example of shatavadhan is given which demonstrates higher stages of consciousness, which also imply an increase in knowledge and order. Jains' principle of evolution of soul is compared with Darwin's principle of evolution. The whole formalism could provide new avenues of thought to look at the whole discipline of Bioethics.
Introduction The issue of Bioethics essentially involves developments in the field of medical sciences and their impact on society along with the response of society towards these developments. They involve biological systems like men, animals, and society. They also involve philosophy, religion, politics, economics, and others. These disciplines are very different from the physical disciplines like physics and chemistry for which methodologies of science have been developed initially. Hence General Systems Theory is being used to study these widely different disciplines by treating them as systems. In the process, limitations of scientific knowledge and scientific methodology are specified which involve conservations laws, limitations caused by Gödel's incompleteness theorems.
The ideas of Jainsim are then mentioned. As per Jainism, all living beings have an underlying unity through the presence of a soul which is there among all living beings, like an ant, or an elephant, or a human being. It is due to material particles attached with the souls that distinctions are made among living beings. It is also assumed that the real knowledge is structured in the soul, and the material mixed with souls comes in the way of true realization of this knowledge. Jains talk of a process of evolution through which an ordinary soul can become a pure soul by relinquishing all material particles attached to one's soul from the infinite past.
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