Outlook – July 28, 2019

70 OUTLOOK 29 July 2019

questions. They include the

issue of the appropriate

org anisation of the economy,

whether capitalism is prefer­

able to socialism, whether

the market has an alienating

effect on individuals or

whether consumer sover­

eignty is acceptable. The

ethical, political, and philo­

sophical significance of mar­

kets, for instance, has been

debated forever. For Marx,

a central problem of Western

societies was the

alienation created by mar

kets. Hayek, on the other

hand, argued that the market

was central to individual free­

dom. These are important

questions and yet, their phil­

osophic and subjective

dimensions make their objec­

tive resolution impossible.

These are not questions that

are part of the economics

major any more as they

do not fit into the current

paradigms of research. But

the report feels that this is

a loss as such questions can

ignite student passion.

In contrast, smaller, more

technical research questions

simply encourage unc ritical

acceptance of established

knowledge.

The report notes that emp­

loyers look for students who

have attempted the big think

questions rather than those

who have cultivated research

skills specific to the disci­

pline. They need employees

who have a cap acity to learn,

with demonstrable critical,

quantitative and communi­

cational skills. These are the

skills of a liberally educated

student, not one immersed

in disciplinary expertise.

T

EACHING questions

are what the Harvard

educationist Howard

Gardner calls “disci­

plinary ways of thinking ”:

the fundamental spirit and

methodology of disciplines

lying deep inside the maze

of facts and information that

make up their bodies. These

questions make up the souls

of disciplines. The study

of English literature at the

traditional Indian university,

for insta nce, has been domi­

nated by the factual contours

of literary history: from the

earliest Anglo­Saxon chron­

icles to the 20th century.

Unfortunately, the historical

mapping rarely bothers to

highlight the fact that the

very category of literature

came into existence with

Enlightenment modernity,

that forces as varied as the

spread of print culture, acc­

eleration of capitalism and

the rise of the middle­class

and the development of the

nation­state came to shape

our gradual understanding

of literature as something

produced in writing and acc­

ordingly consumed through

reading in isolation. That the

idea of literature as fabrica­

ted fiction more or less took

shape with the birth of the

novel, the quintessentially

modern literary genre. The

big think questions, here too,

are left unexplored.

Is history restricted to the

sphere of the rational? Is the

idea or the practice of litera­

ture separable from the fig­

ure of the author? Does the

market have an ali enating

eff ect on individuals? Such

big think questions put us on

the search for what Gardner

calls “the epistemic forms of

the disciplines”. On such

quests, we can only grope

our way, as the light of

knowledge is dim when

spread across vast domains.

In the face of such questions,

research conviction is diffi­

cult, possibly unattainable.

But they should drive the ex­

citement of learning in col­

lege, for they unite young

passion to the intellectual

realities of the disciplines.

The natural sciences have

their own share of big think

questions. What relation

does the three regular states

of matter: solid, liquid and

gas share with their unusual

fourth—plasma? Surely it is

a different relation than

what the three share with

each other, since matter

occ urs as solid, liquid and

gas on earth naturally, but

can be induced as plasma in

the earth’s atmosphere only

under artificial conditions?

Does the fact that plasma

occurs naturally only in

outer space make this rela­

tionship a unique one?

The famous Navier­Stokes

equations, named after

Claude­Louis Navier and

George Gabriel Stokes, offers

an intriguing insight into the

primal epistemic form in the

physical sciences. A key

application of a fundamental

law of physics to fluid motion,

the Navier­Stokes equations

describes essential principles

of the way fluids move and

circulate. They explain pro­

cesses of scientific and engi­

neering interest, and help

with phenomena as diverse

as blood­flow, air­pollution,

the design of aircrafts, cars

and power stations, weather

and ocean currents. But

probably the greatest intel­

lectual fascination of the

equation is that in spite of

their wide practical applica­

bility, they have so far proved

analytically unsolvable. This

un­solvability has been dec­

lared one of the great open

questions of mathematics.

Empirically evident but rat­

ionally un­provable—is it

possible to have a more fasci­

nating scientific problem?

Epistemic forms are the

very souls of disciplines.

Thinking like a historian,

Gardner reminds us, is very

different from thinking like

a literary critic or a biologist.

Learning a subject is not

merely about covering a

canon in detail or taking in a

lot of information; it is also

assuming the very mode of

thought that defines that

discipline. The latter should

be the core goal of teaching

and learning, and will make

the transition from high

school to college, stimulat­

ing, enjoyable, and rich

with possibilities. O

‘Teaching

questions’ are

the fundamental

spirit of

disciplines lying

deep inside the

maze of facts

that make up

their bodies.

LIBERAL TEACHING

UNIVERSITY

SPECIAL