Abstract: There is a growing recognition that Einstein’s contributions to the philosophy of science are comparable to his influence on physics. His contention that “independence created by philosophical insight is. . .the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth” is, arguably, even more, relevant to twenty-first-century social science. The talk will try to make this case by taking Einstein’s philosophical insights to specific challenges in the methodology of the social sciences.
About the speaker: Dr. Narendar Pani is a Professor and Dean of the School of Social Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, where he also heads the Inequality and Human Development Program. After a Ph.D. in economics, he moved into transdisciplinary research which allowed him to explore diverse, but interconnected, aspects of Indian reality. His work over the last four decades has thus ranged from agrarian reform to urban processes, confronting challenges of the method along the way. His books include Inclusive Economics: Gandhian Method and Contemporary Policy (2002) and The City as Action: Retheorizing Urban Studies (2022).