Nature of reasoning in science_ a critical dialogue between Indian and Western philosophy

INTRODUCTION iP'l -C + Philosophy of science emerged as a distinctive part of philosophy in the twentieth century. The systematic study of the metaphysical and epistemological foundations of science acquired great urgency and found its formative moment in the philosophical work of a group of radical and innovative thinkers- the logical positivism. The central target of philosophy of science is to understand science as a cognitive activity. Some of the central questions of philosophy of science are what is the aim and method of science? What makes a science a rational activity? What is the nature of universal laws? How it is different from accidental generalizations? What is the structure and content of major scientific concepts, such as causation, explanation, laws of nature, confirmation, theory, experiment, model, and reduction and so on? These kinds of questions were originally addressed within a formal logicomathematical framework. Philosophy of science was taken to be a largely a priory conceptual enterprise aiming to elucidate the language of science. Scientific knowledge stands as the supreme intellectual achievement of our society. One of the strongest urge of man is to know about his observable environment. And the most important function of scientific theory is to satisfy this need. A scientific theory has other functions of 'controlling' and 'explaining' the phenomenon. 'To control' is to bring about the desired change of environment and with the 'truth' of the theory. It is needless to debate the issue because such truth must necessarily be the pragmatic dimension of truth. Natural sciences essentially deal with explanation and prediction. To explain the phenomena of the physical world is one of the primary objectives of the natural,