Monday, March 1, 2010

The Soul of Science

In class today we discussed the Calcutta chromosome 'discovered' by Mangala is a means of transferring "human traits: it's all consciousness and soul at that end of the spectrum. (251)" In philosophy one of the most prominent debates is over the body and the soul. Some believe that the body is merely a vessel for the soul while others believe that there is no soul at all. Then again, there is a popular belief that the mind and the body exist separately. Renee Descartes believed that the mind and body were connected by the pineal gland in the brain, but this hypothesis has since been proven false. Is Ghosh proposing a theory analogous to Descartes's about a biological basis for the soul? Do you think Ghosh's Calcutta Chromosome is scientifically possible? If so will it ever be possible to prove or disprove this theory? I think rather than trying to propose an alternative biological source for the sould, Ghosh is using science to show that not everything can be known or understood. The more we know due to scientific advances, the clearer it is that we know very little.
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2 comments:

  1. ColinMarch 4, 2010 at 1:12 PM

    I believe that anything is possible until science proves it wrong. There is no current way to discover the "calcutta chromosome" so we can't prove that it doesn't exist. I think science will eventually progess far enough to prove or disprove the theory, but it may take some considerable time. Current science has very little knowledge, most of our understanding is based off of theories that could be disproven with a scientific breakthrough. As far as a soul-body connection goes, I don't believe that science will ever be able to explain what we define as the "soul" of a human.

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  2. Soleil023March 8, 2010 at 1:05 AM

    I agree with Colin that anything is possible until it has been disproven by science. As science is the pursuit of knowledge and in that pursuit as more information is uncovered old information is regarded as obsolete and the new information provides way to countless more discoveries that one had no idea existed prior to that moment. The Calcutta Chromosome at this time with the current information and technology available seems unlikely however as development occurs in science and technology in the future the Calcutta Chromosome may not seem as such a ridiculous idea as it appears now.

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