An article on Knowledge and Happiness

Y.S. Rajan

Introduction

The new millennium and the twenty first century have begun at a time when there are a number of serious discussions as well as populist euphoria about the emergence of knowledge society.  The words like “knowledge –intensive”, “knowledge-driven”, “intellectual capital”, “knowledge-power”, “traditional knowledge” etc are being freely used often with a great imprecision.  The explosive growth in the applications of information and communication (ICT) is also leading to greater access to and proliferation of data and information.  Access to data and information from past records which are many years old through scanning technologies and analysis of huge volumes of data to discern trends which would have been impossible before, add new dimensions to human knowledge base.  Applications and uses of these technologies are not merely limited to high technology sectors or the “new” businesses but pervade practically all sectors-legal profession, accountancy, literature, music, printing, arts, sports, media, administration, hospitals and almost all walks of life.

Question mark on human destiny

Even while the above is true, much bigger question mark about human destiny is also arising all around the world.  The tools of human creation which have resulted from individual and collective human knowledge, are also being used for severe forms of destruction.  These manifest not merely as terrorist actions of killings with an aim to create more hatred, but also as various forms of disinformation aimed at generating more disharmony in the society.  Those who indulge in such destructive activities have their own logic for justifying their actions; some actions are based on faith; some actions on emotions; some actions are based on intellectual justifications based on happenings in the

* Scientific Adviser to the Chief Minister of Punjab and Vice Chancellor, Punjab Technical University.  Delivered as R.B. Datar Memorial Lecture 2002 at New Delhi on 29th November 2002, arranged by the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association.

distant past; some actions are because of the perceived competitive advantages in commerce or in politics or in other professions; some actions are because the actors themselves are badly caught in a vicious circle of hatred, crime, violence, killings, law breaking  and group fights and do not know how to break the vicious circle.

No doubt there are a large number of persons all around the world – acting locally, nationally and globally-who try to remove the conflicts and seriously attempt to bring harmony in many parts of the world; they try to put down terrorism or divisive conflicts with a heavy hand of force or other means and try to enforce greater harmony between divisive groups.  But many of them are left with a feeling best expressed in the words of Albert Camus in “The Plague”

“None the less, he knew that the tale he had to tell could be one of a final victory.  It could be only the record of what had had to be done, and what assuredly would have to be done again in the never-ending fight against terror and its relentless onslaughts, despite their personal afflictions, by all who, while unable to be saints but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive their utmost to be healers”

Such is perhaps the condition of reflecting human minds in present period of human history.  Sometimes it makes one wonder whether the old statement “Ignorance is bliss” is really true.

The Indian situation

In India we cannot escape this stark reality about human conditions stating that we have a rich civilisational heritage full of wisdom and therefore we can find solutions.  India on its part has many more problems than faced by a number of other nations or societies.  We not only have the problems of terrorism, divisive conflicts or violent conflicts referred to above but also have a glaring reality of utmost poverty suffered by hundreds of millions of our citizens.  Our poor suffer from hunger, serious diseases and constant humiliation, even while we have most enlightened legal, political and economic principles enunciated from time to time. When one is in direct contact with such a poverty and penury, other destructive human actions referred to in the earlier part appear to be a lesser problem.

The agony resulting from the shame one feels being a more privileged citizen of the Indian society hurts much more sharply than pieces of explosives.  It is an agony of many centuries; about which we had a hope to remove after independence.  But the agony continues even after fifty five years of independence.  The onslaught of modern forces of globalisation and technological progress further poses threats to many Indians who are currently employed but are on professions which may become irrelevant in the face of global competition or because of the changing consumption patterns and lifestyles of the “middle class” and upper strata of society.   That means many more will be pushed into deprived states of existence, even while the electronic media and cinema will continue to show the image of richer lifestyles.  To be sure the conditions of poverty are also shown just as the actions of violence.  Are we sitting on a human volcano(es)?

There are also other real or perceived (with or without basis) threats to human society.  Many of these concern environmental degradation-local, regional, and global, pollution and fears of human-made hazards.  Some of these concerns are real or scientifically based.  A number of them are also emotions kindled either out of genuine concerns or commercial interest or practical knowledge.

Upsurge of newer forms of malaria, TB and rapid spread of HIV/AIDS as well as increased incidences of cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases pose another set of problems.

So India is faced with poverty, poor nutrition, poor sanitation and health services, a number of human-made and natural calamities in addition to caste, language, religion or political affiliations.  There is a huge network of organized crime.  Over and above these, terror and violence unleashed from actors outside India, add many gruesome happenings within the country.

Is happiness anywhere in sight?  To be sure there are a number of positive features of India too.  It has many great achievers in almost all fields of human endeavour.  Average life expectancy has increased manifold since independence.  Major famines or epidemics  have become the thing of the past.  A large number of Indians who were very poor at the time of independence have much better quality of life now.   Access to most parts of the country has become much better than many decades earlier.  Many more women have come into public life and contribute substantially to Indian society and economy.  Many people who were socially oppressed for many centuries are able to assert themselves.  India has a well established modern legal systems, which are still weak in many parts of the world.  Indians have freedom of speech.  Elements of Indian spiritual and religious traditions and tolerance have also asserted many times, even at times of great danger.

But the problems listed earlier are so enormous and they pose a great threat against the gains.  Therefore it is necessary to think about the issues; address them squarely; analyse them dispassionately; and find clues for actions.  A number of persons forget the nature of interconnectedness of life.  Some tend to place the blame on market forces; globalisation; or science and technology; or western culture; or religion; or on politicians; and so on.

What is attempted here is more towards approaches for finding solutions.  No attempt is made to comprehensively define “Human knowledge” or “Human happiness” through different shades of meanings and connotations these words have acquired are indicated in various sections.

In a book by me “Empowering Indians”, with economic, business and technological strengths”,(2002) in a section addressing value systems, an attempt has been made to discuss the role of science and technology in human happiness.  This paper is an attempt to extend the concept to a larger canvas of all forms of human knowledge as science and technology is only a part of human knowledge.

In an ideal sense the issues of human knowledge send happiness are universal though there are local variations.  While a constant attempt is made to keep this universality in mind, a number of Indian contextual examples and quotations will be used  because I am more familiar with them.

HUMAN KNOWLEDGE?

It is difficult to claim scientifically or otherwise that knowledge is the prerogative of only human consciousness.  In an excellent treatise “Mind from matter?”, an essay on Evolutionary  Epistemology, Max Delbrick (1986), attempts to examine three principal questions:

“1.  How is it possible that mind came into being in an initially lifeless and mindless, universe?

2.    If by way of answer to the first question, we envisage  that mind arose from mindless matter by a Darwinian evolutionary process of  natural selection favouring caveman’s reproductive success, then how did this process give rise to a mind capable of elaborating the most profound insights into mathematics, the structure of matter, and the nature of life itself, which were scarcely needed in the cave?

3.Indeed how can the capacity for understanding and knowing the truth arise from dead matter?”

He starts the analysis from the view point of naive realism, that is, a common person’s view of life that a real world of things exists as he sees, feels, hears and smells.  Later he abandons this approach and comes to interesting conclusions.  The book also provides many examples and explanations which prove that perception(i.e. reception and interpretation of signal from outside the organism) is of great antiquity in the evolutionary process.

But human knowledge is much more evolved than many other life forms.  To quote from his book, “His ancestors diverged from apes about 15 millions years ago.  â€¦.Homoerectus appeared 1.5 million years ago…. Homosapiens several hundred thousand years ago.  Only as recently as 40,000 years ago did one race of Homo sapiens namely our own kind, H.sapiens sapiens, managed to exterminate