A meeting was help on 10th June, 2017 at the Lokavidya Vedike office in Thyagaraja Nagar in Bengaluru to discuss the initiation of a Lokavidya Initiative. The meeting was attended by around 25 people. The discussions revolved around the idea of developing a sustained dialogue between the world of Lokavidya and various organized knowledge streams in the Arts, Information Sciences, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Social Sciences and Philosophical traditions. It was decided that a Lokavidya Vedike (platform) be formed for this purpose. A basic intent of the dialogue would be to prepare the ground for building a world of knowledge where different streams of knowledge enter into a creative dialectic with one another based on an equal and fraternal relationship. It is from such a world of knowledge that a new imagination can be expected to arise to serve society on a sustained basis – its bottom line being the complete eradication of poverty and social disparity.
Proceeding from these bases, a new world of knowledge would express the concerns of the world that are grounded in reality and are expressed through values that promote active engagement with society along dimensions such as:
- Pursuit of truth
- Communicability across the society especially amongst ordinary people
- Concern for people and nature
- Aesthetics and morality
- Non hierarchy: non-insistence on correctness or superiority of any one stream of knowledge or its methodology over that of others
- A requirement for all knowledge to return to society: so that all sciences, arts, etc do not detach themselves from a concern towards the living world
The world of knowledge of today is based on a reduction of all epistemology to science. In this background, considering science as one of the many paramparas (traditions) that have existed (and continue to exist) over time in human society will be a first step towards legitimizing all types and forms of knowledge including Lokavidya. With this recognition arises the ability to create a dialogue between these spheres of knowledge that offer a promise to understand man, nature and the world in ways that are new and fundamentally different from the current and dominant methods. In line with this, Lokavidya Vedike proposes to focus on enabling a wide ranging dialogue between various knowledge streams through different activities.
Henceforth, we would like to continuously engage and interact with each one of you through multiple forums: mailers, WhatsApp, Blogs, etc. We appeal to you to bring your ideas of the world to these forums with an objective of actively participating in the building of a new world of knowledge that can serve as an enduring basis for eliminating poverty and inequality, for understanding human societies in new ways, for developing fresh perspectives on man’s relationship with nature and the world, and much more.
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