David Shulman "Is There a Concept of Nature in Pre-modern South Asia?"

Although the literary and scientific works of pre-modern India are full of descriptions of the natural world and subtle analyses of how living beings interact with the world outside them, it is not clear that a notion of Nature-- analogous to Greek physis or Latin natura-- exists. The lecture will explore this question in the light of what appears to be a breakthrough in the sixteenth centuries in the south, with the emergence of notions of nature as an autonomous, rule-governed domain amenable to observation and induction. But what role does the observer play in relation to this newly defined domain?

Cost: Free and open to public

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