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Media Kit
Today’s belief in an endless progress tends toward an almost total rejection of spiritual wisdom’s world views as being naïve, out-moded, and contrary to empirical evidence. The premises of modernism permeate our culture and our thinking so thoroughly that it is often very difficult for an individual to step back and see them clearly.
Is it possible that the glistening images of technological and scientific progress have caused us to lose sight of something which is in fact even more essential to the lives of real human beings? The purpose of this anthology is to provide access to information, through a diverse selection of eminent authors, that can assist open-minded people in evaluating this question of the nature of modern “progress.”
Contributors include: René Guénon, Frithjof Schuon, Wendell Berry, Titus Burckhardt , Giuseppe Sermonti, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Huston Smith, Philip Sherrard, and others.
About the Author(s)
Mehrdad M. Zarandi
Dr. Mehrdad M. Zarandi has long had a keen interest in science and mathematics. This eventually resulted in his receiving a Doctoral degree in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, where he has continued to work as a research scientist in aeronautics and biomedical engineering.Through his studies, Dr. Zarandi encountered the writings of Perennialist authors, which led to an interest in the correspondences between metaphysical principles and their expression within cosmology and science. It is his extensive background in science and the consideration of its place in modern life and thought that has culminated in Dr. Zarandi's editing the World Wisdom anthology Science and the Myth of Progress .
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Reviews
- There must be few books better able than this one to demolish the pseudo intellectual impostures which have been fabricated from scientific thought to fill the intellectual vacuum of modern times. Most of the urgent issues in today’s world result from the impact of applied science on human life, and underlying them is the question as to the meaning and value of scientific knowledge as such. Endless confusions flow from the distinction between science as the profession of discovering facts about natural phenomena, and science as an ideology with a program for remaking the world in its own image. This problem is powerfully addressed by the seventeen essays in this book, which all illustrate different ways of distinguishing science from the pseudo-philosophy with which it is usually identified.
from Temenos Academy Review
- In these days of incredible technological advances, when almost nothing seems impossible, the question of spiritual knowledge is often overlooked. In this volume, Zarandi, a research scientist at the California Institute of Technology, gathers essays by over a dozen scholars in science, theology and metaphysics that tackle issues raised by modern scientific inquiry-i.e., how much of what we think we know do we really know, and how much progress have we actually made? The contributors’ assessments differ from the common understanding of the correlation between science and spirit: while acknowledging the value and contribution science has rendered, Zarandi posits that ‘the contemporary belief in an endless progress tends toward an almost total rejection of spiritual wisdom’s worldviews as being naïve, outmoded and contrary to empirical evidence.’ This compilation attempts to ‘provide access to information’ that may enlighten readers who believe there is another realm to reality beyond the physical world, a realm not knowable by reason and scientific inquiry.
Publishers Weekly
- Included here are articles by scientists and academicians that explore the limitations of modern science and the experimental method. Is the assumption correct that the technological advances of modern science are incontestable proof of humanity’s progress toward the realization of its ultimate well-being? Readers will see not only the practical but also the fundamental limitations of technocracy and the insufficiencies of its image of humanity.
Prof. A. K. Ziarani, Clarkson University
- Modern science believes-and fears-that by a kind of endless curiosity about the mechanism of material reality, we will eventually encompass-and thus exhaust-the enigma of existence in thought. The articles in this collection make it clear that the corollary is a vain effort to achieve a material utopia whose fulfillment always eludes us. In doing so, they bring a fresh enjoyment to the journey of discovery that science really is.
Prof. M. S. Alouini, University of Minnesota
- Here are essays from respected scholars-both inside and outside the scientific community-who share a clear consensus that physical existence can be understood adequately only as a manifestation of a higher, supra-formal reality which is spiritual. Those searching for an alternative to conventional wisdom that can stand up to scrutiny will be well pleased with these essays. Highly recommended.
Prof. Fariba Bahrami, University of Waterloo
- Dr. Zarandi’s science training and teaching experience at Caltech has served him-and his readers-well. He has the gift of being able to describe the operating premises of modern scientific thought and their limitations. Whether you are a scientist, scholar or simply someone who takes life seriously, this book will encourage you to reexamine your most basic assumptions about life. Each reader’s understanding of the human condition is improved by this insightful collection.
Professor A. Shakouri, University of California
- The great advantage of this book is to put together texts of authors (scientists, philosophers and theologians) whose lucidity about modern science goes far beyond emotional reaction and moralist subjectivity; and this ‘tour de force’ is accomplished from within the point of view of the main traditional religions. Here, Science and Faith are reconciled in an unexpected way: scientific objectivity is not an issue; but the real issue, where one sees no proof of progress, is whether man is capable of using modern science properly. A must for the reader who wants to sharpen his or her discernment about modern science.
Jean-Pierre Lafouge, Marquette University.
- Writing as an active research scientist, living in the present Culture of Disbelief created (partly unwittingly) by the science establishment, I can think of no R/D project more significant to the future of humanity than putting ‘science’ back into its proper place as a part of culture, but not its religion. This book is an excellent contribution to that paramount goal.
Rustum Roy, Evan Pugh Professor of the Solid State Emeritus, The Pennsylvania State University.
- The essays collected in this volume provide a profound critique of modern scientism but also resist the temptations of postmodernist antirealism and sentimental pietism. While the postmodern critiques of modern science are based on the denial of truth and thus unable to present an intelligible alternative, sentimental pietism and ethicalism criticize the consequences of modern science and technology without grasping their philosophical foundations. The essays go beyond the ‘little bit science, little bit ethics’ approach, and reassert the urgency of developing a different philosophical framework within with we can make sense of reality, both physical and metaphysical. Highly recommended for those interested in philosophy, science, religion and the environment.
Prof. Ibrahim Kalin, College of the Holy Cross
- A wonderful collection of essays dealing with the supposed conflict between religion and science from both a scientific and a metaphysical point of view. Anyone concerned with understanding the intrinsic nature of this conflict which lies at the heart of the problems of the present world crisis, would do well to study these essays.
Rama Coomaraswamy, author of The Invocation of the Name of Jesus: As Practiced in the Western Church and The Destruction of the Christian Tradition
- Many a mind convinced by the Perennialist perspective’s truth still hesitates to shatter the modern temple of Scientism. Yet, cosmology is a traditional science born directly from metaphysics. It operates as the point of intersection, or barzakh, between what is eternal and what is [in a state of] becoming. This anthology offers us a series of critical meditations on some modern theories, particularly on evolutionist theory. Of special relevance is Titus Burchardt’s overview of Traditional Arab Cosmology as well as the powerful effort by James Cutsinger to reconcile emanation, creation and evolution within a rigourously defined traditional perspective. His text reveals that traditional critique is neither dogmatic nor reactive in essence.
Patricia Reynaud, Miami University, Ohio, and co-founder of religioperennis.org
