Principles of Science

Course Title: Principles of Science

A Foundation Course in Science for Liberal Arts

Developed and Taught by Umeshkanta Thounaojam @ Ashoka University (2016-17)

Preamble: This course is developed with a mission of imparting a broad appreciation of sciences to liberal arts undergraduates. Science will be examined from different perspectives of arts, maths, humanities, and social sciences. Knowledge of the fundamental ideas and scientific methods that have moulded mankind can help in various ways. In this course, it is hoped that this will lead to an appreciation of the importance of the sciences and their close association with disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

Course Description: This course aims to invoke inquiry to understand the basis of scientific knowledge and evolution of science. We will study the development of science, nature of science, criteria of scientificity, and the dynamics of scientific rationality at various stages of mankind’s history. A strong emphasis will be given to understand how some of the revolutionary scientific ideas were formulated and have evolved over time. Students will be exposed to a range of topics in different scientific disciplines to help them understand some of the unifying ideas and principles of science, and their implications in other fields.

Here is a recent article titled "Teaching the “Principles of Science” within a Liberal Arts curriculum" published in Current Science journal October 25 issue of the year 2020. Current Science is an interdisciplinary journal which was started by C. V. Raman. It was established in 1932 and is published by the Current Science Association along with the Indian Academy of Sciences.

In the teaser of this article, Current Science wrote:

Liberal Arts Meet Sciences

Educational strategies

"The National Education Policy 2020 may provide the flexibility required to introduce courses that cut across disciplines and to bridge the famous ‘two cultures’ of C. P. Snow. Leveraging on the experience of teaching a course on the principles of science in a liberal arts curriculum, Thounaojam Umeshkanta Singh suggests methods to integrate natural sciences, humanities and social sciences in university curricula.

In a General Article in this issue, he stresses the importance of incorporating the principles of science in liberal arts curricula and, in science curricula, the history and philosophy of science. Narrow specialisations do not give the intellectual flexibility and spirit of innovation required to cope with a rapidly changing world, he says."

We also strongly believe that this article is important in the light of New Education policy, 2020.