About Centre for Contemporary Studies, Indian Institute of Science in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

The Centre for Contemporary Studies, a relatively new experiment at the Institute, endeavours to bring to the campus some of the best practitioners of different disciplines in the human sciences, such as philosophy, sociology, economics, law, literature, poetry, art, music, cinema etc. These scholars, drawn from all over the world, visit and lecture at the Institute and some are in residence for periods ranging from a few days to several months. Students, faculty and staff of the Institute as well a number of people from other institutes in Bangalore attend these lectures. The aim of this experiment is to forge useful and meaningful interaction between the natural sciences and human sciences with special focus on understanding the diverse research methodologies of different disciplines and create opportunities to rethink the foundations of our own disciplines - often the opportunity to criticise the methodological foundation of another discipline leads to a re-examination of the foundation of one’s own discipline. In addition to such one-off lectures, the Centre offers (presently, once in two years), a one-semester course entitled “The Production of Knowledge – A comparison of Natural and Social Sciences”.

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