Project
title:
The Relationship between Science and Spirituality from a Postmodern
Perspective. On Scientific Approaches to Human Consciousness and the
Implications for Taoist Religion.
Abstract:
The
paper examines the scientific works on Consciousness by three Nobel
Prize Laureates, and their inherited problems. The problems are duo
to their deficiency in philosophy. Given the various monist echoes
in current Western Philosophy, Chinese traditional Taoism has a crucial
role to play. We believe that there exists a mutual relation of support
and compatibility exists between Taoist dualism and the works in neuroscience.
Taoism can provide an insight into the complex findings in neuroscience.
A correct interpretation of the achievements in neuroscience can extend
a support for the reality of human spirituality. A creative interface
between science and religion may lead to an expansion of scientific
method from purely third-person objective observation to a notion
accommodating subjective conscious experience.
Short
biography:
Prof.
Kang Ouyang Professor in Philosophy, PhD Supervisor and the Assistant
President of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST),
as well as Director of "the Center for Scientific Progress and
Human Spirit" sponsored by the "State 985 II Fund".
He is also the Director of the Institute of Philosophy, Vice Dean
of the School of National Spirit and Chief Editor of HUST’s
Social Sciences Journal. He obtained his PH.D. from Renmin University,
China, in 1988 and has since served as Chair of the Politics Department
at Shanxi Normal University, 1992, Chair of the Philosophy Department
in 1995 and Dean of Wuhan University’s School of Humanities
in 1999. He has published ten books and over two hundred papers, has
carried out more than ten national and international research projects,
been awarded numerous national academic prizes and visited over twenty
countries. He is a leading scholar in the fields of national spirit,
cross-cultural studies and philosophy in China.
