Abstract: This article (a sort of advice to the
young Scholars) is based on the Presidential Address delivered by the Author
during the Inaugural Session of the International Conference on
Multidisciplinary Research organized by the Kanyakumari Academy of Arts and
Sciences (KAAS) jointly with Sree Ayyappa College for Women at Nagercoil on
February 28, 2024. The advice, in short, is: Carry out teaching and research in
a constructive way without any bias and prejudice.
Keywords: Teaching and research, bias and
prejudice, scientific knowledge, spiritual knowledge.
It is firmly believed that we the humans
have been created in this world through our parents by God (with eight senses or
attributes – ‘Ennkunaththaan’ as per
the Thirukkural).
Kolil poriyil kunamilave ennkunaththaan
Thaalai vanangaath thalai.
[Couplet 9 in Chapter 1; Original in
Tamil by Thiruvalluvar]
Before His foot, ‘the Eight-fold
Excellence’ with unbent head,
Who stands, like palsied sense, is to
all living functions dead.
[Dr. G. U. Pope’s translated version of the above in English]
We the humans (with six senses or attributes) take a long time after birth to
get up and move independently than the other living beings (with two to five
senses or attributes). So, we understand that we are unique in having the sixth
sense (with analytical and creative capabilities, and can evolve in possessing
knowledge and other higher attitudes), and we are expected to have a coordinated
social life with true love and affection extended to others.
People of this world can be characterized
not only by multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and multi-religious diversity,
geographical differences and regional disparities but also by inequalities of
wealth, income and opportunity, and access to resources. Education with Research
can be considered as a powerful route to reduce regional, and social disparities
and enabling choice, and freedom to the individual to lead a productive life and
participate in the human development.
The fundamental requirement for everybody
in this world is: convenient, comfortable and pollution-free shelter, convenient
and comfortable dress; sufficient amount of nutritious food along with pure
drinking water; and peaceful and healthy living. In order to make any Country
(at least) self-sufficient in these, a better education along with quality
research is necessary. Home-grown and cost-effective solutions have to be found
to solve the problems of that country especially in villages. It should be noted
that the major population in our world is in villages.
It can be stated that:
The real development of any Country
Lies in how far is developed the
Country
In education, wealth, health and
culture.
From this it can be understood that if
India (for example) is to become developed, we should attain development may not
be in corporate wealth (as this is a pseudo development and it creates more
inequality of wealth, income and opportunity, and access to resources in the
Country) but should attain self-sufficiency in education, wealth, health and
culture (as this is the real development of the Country as a whole, including
every citizen of this Country).
There arise some questions. What is the
real meaning of knowledge? Why knowledge is related to only the human beings and
not to other living beings? Can we divide the knowledge as God-given (Spiritual
knowledge / Meignanam) and Man-made (Scientific knowledge / Vignanam)? What
knowledge should we consider as spiritual? What knowledge should we consider as
Scientific? Under what division should we consider any knowledge obtained from
dreams? Can this be considered as spiritual?
We gain scientific knowledge normally by
observations, listening to people and media, reading and understanding available
literature, personal analysis and thoughts, experimentation, etc. What we have
been doing is to gain scientific knowledge. This knowledge is expected to
improve or evolve in the future. This can be illustrated with the scientifically
attained knowledge (in the past) on the nature of light, atomic structure, etc.
The spiritual knowledge (including that
through proper dreams) is universal and is not expected to improve or evolve in
the future. We know that the Siddha medicines (known through spirituality and
not tested as in the case of allopathic medicines) are considered to be perfect
and without any side effect. Also, we know that scientifically prepared herbal
medicines require testing.
For a suitable life, we need, not only
the spiritual knowledge but also lot of improvement in the existing scientific
knowledge. This is very much possible by using our God-given sixth sense; the
concept of education and research is that.
The well accepted modern learning process
is:
Concentrate, Understand and Practice
(CUP model).
And as per the 2000 year old
Thirukkural:
Karka kasatarak karpavai kattrapin
Nirka adharkuth thaha
[Couplet 391 in Chapter 40; Original in Tamil by
Thiruvalluvar]
So learn that you may full and
faultless learning gain,
Then in obedience meet to lessons
learnt remain.
[Dr. G. U. Pope’s translated version
of the above in English]
Both are the same and are in the right
direction.
At present, we observe several flaws in
the kind and quality of research work carried out to gain knowledge;
particularly, research leading to social development is mostly with bias and
prejudice. It can be stated that:
Bias and prejudice may not lead to
Proper judgements in judicial courts
Proper conclusions in research works
Proper outcomes in social doings
Investigating a case and preparing the
judgement in a Judiciary Court is more or less like a research work carried out
and drawing conclusions; and a similar way is normally adopted in social doings.
In all these three cases, there should not be any bias and prejudice.
The play of bias and prejudice may lead
to pre-fixing the Judgement and then carrying out the Investigation to comply
with the pre-fixed Judgement. For example, in sociological research, bias and
prejudice may lead to pre-fixing the Conclusions (this is not like making a
hypothesis) and then collecting evidences in favor of the pre-fixed Conclusions
and rejecting the other evidences even if they are more important and valid
ones. So, this type of research is totally useless and also misleading; because
this is not the actual truth finding process.
Moreover, we ensure that the research
work is to find new and true knowledge useful for the social development and not
to find pseudo knowledge for destroying the social cooperation and human
coordination. So, there should not be any bias and prejudice while planning,
designing and carrying out the research work and our search for truth should be
for a good purpose in our real world; because the pseudo knowledge gained with
bias and prejudice, when passed over to our young and future generation, may
lead their life miserable.
Gaining knowledge and utilizing the
existing knowledge are considered to be important aspects. We should pay more
attention to this. A nuclear reaction produces a tremendous amount of energy.
When this is properly controlled, as in a nuclear power plant, it is
constructive and is useful to the mankind. When it is uncontrolled, as in a
nuclear bomb, it is destructive and is harmful to the mankind. From this we can
understand that the knowledge gained should be useful to the mankind in a
constructive way. So, the research and teaching work we do should be in a way
(without any bias and prejudice) to help the mankind in a constructive way. That
is, let us avoid bias and prejudice in teaching and research, and proceed in a
constructive way.