Logic in the present times...

[sridatta]

While answering questions here, the nature and standard of learning of the present generation is kept in view. When Śaṅkara and other preachers preached in the past, they too kept in view, the standard of learning of the receivers of their knowledge in those times. The context of the current generation is very important in giving good explanations.

The ancient standard used in acquiring and communicating knowledge was tarka or the ancient system of logic. The present standard is science. There is no difference between the ancient logic and science. In both, the common subject is the systematic analysis of creation. Of course, science is superior to ancient logic because the theoretical concepts in science have experimental proof.

For example, sound and volume were said to be the characteristics of space by ancient logic, but science tells us sound cannot travel in empty space and that collisions between the molecules of the medium such as air are necessary for the transmission of sound. Science even proves this concept experimentally.

Science has also proved that awareness is only the work-form of the inert energy functioning in a specific device called the nervous system. It is like the case of electricity functioning in a specific machine called a grinding machine and getting converted into a specific work-form of the electricity, called grinding-work. But some ancient scholars had misunderstood awareness to be the eternal God.

Even in science, concepts and theories get replaced by more advanced concepts and theories over time. This is a natural tendency of both science and logic. Science may supersede logic in certain concepts because it is backed by experimental proof, but both science and logic fail to describe the unimaginable God. Hence, science is greater than mere theoretical logic, but it equally fails before the unimaginable God.