About the Talk

The concept of space has always held a great fascination for philosophers across the ages. There is something obvious and transparent about space, and yet it is that which makes it a great mystery. For example, all attempts to understand motion and change – a theme which was central to philosophy – seemed to invoke a concept of space. Space seems to be obviously present before us but it is not perceptible through our five senses. Or at least that is what many dominant traditions would like to assert. The history of how different cultures conceptualised space is actually a history of their cultures – since beliefs about space affected many other beliefs about life, time, nature and the social. Space as we understand it today is deeply influenced by the scientific theories from Newton to Einstein. But how do these scientific theories account for our experience of space? This talk will explore some of these philosophical issues around the idea of space.

About the Speaker

Sundar Sarukkai is Professor of Philosophy at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore and was the Founder-Director of the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities, Manipal University from 2010-2015. He is the author of the following books: Translating the World: Science and Language, Philosophy of Symmetry,  Indian Philosophy and Philosophy of Science, What is Science? and The Cracked Mirror: An Indian Debate on Experience and Theory (co-authored with Gopal Guru). His attempts to bring philosophical thinking to the public can be seen in the many workshops he conducts and in the newspaper columns he writes such as in The Hindu.