Panel Discussion: YouTube Link
To observe the National Scientific Temper day on August 20, 2025, Confluence, the online discussion forum supported by the Indian Academy of Sciences, hosted a panel discussion on the origins, the background and the debates around the idea of the scientific temper. Conceptualised by Shubashree Desikan and Gita Chadha, the panel discussion contextualises the idea of the Scientific Temper in history and as it shaped the modern Indian nation state, it critically examines the role of scientific communities and cultures in promoting (or not) the idea of scientific temper, it makes an attempt to retrieve and reimagine principles of scientific temper itself to make science more inclusive and to bring it closer to the moral project of building a just society.
In the discussion, Ram Ramasway draws upon Kosambi’s vision of science as does Archishman Raju. Raju further integrates this vision with the Nehruvian-Gandhian perspective on modern science. Prajval Shastri brings in perspectives from the people’s science movement and draws upon her experience of scientific institutions and their apolitical cultures to strongly urge for a scientific worldview. Gita Chadha frames the debate within the discipline of sociology and speaks of a need to integrate liberal, socialist and post-colonial perspectives to science. The discussion ends with the need to integrate philosophy, science and politics in the process of reimagining scientific temper.
Video edited by: G. V. Pavan Kumar
Views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of Confluence, its editorial board or the Academy.