General Systems Theory (GST) and Concepts of Indian Philosophy May Provide a Holistic View of Consciousness and Its Evolution

Abstract

This paper describes limitations of the scientific knowledge and the scientific formalism which is currently used to study living systems and human systems in general (1-7). It is suggested that there is a need to explore the General Systems Theory (GST) for better understanding of these issues (8-9). General Systems Theory (GST) is a generalized methodology to study properties of both the physical systems and the social systems (10-13). It is shown that the concept soul and soul-matter interaction of Jainism (14-16) and their concept that knowledge is structured in the consciousness needs to be examined in the modern context. Three examples are given which shows that the concept of knowledge of consciousness has a great meaning and it can be good example to be pursued by the scientists. They lead one to infer that there exist higher dimensions of knowledge including Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) which are not yet properly explored in a systematic way in the context of understanding soul (17-20) As a consequence of this, it is also mentioned that Darwin's principle of "Survival of the fittest" should be compared to a wider principle "Live and Let Live" of Jains based on higher dimensions of knowledge which put more emphasize more on underlying identify (common soul) among all living beings than differences among them (3, 21). This comparison could provide a new way of looking at the concept of evolution and so the concept of spiritual evolution should be also examined in the modern perspective. Ultimately it appears that the characteristics of a pure soul as described in Jainism may provide new ways and new concepts to the modern scientists in understanding the soul/consciousness. Their concept of pure knowledge seems to be quite close to the concept of Implicate Order of quantum mechanics as described by David Bohm (22). Finally it is proposed that the process of spiritual evolution as described in Jainism to achieve the highest state of soul may be accompanied by decrease in rate of entropy production at every stage and building up of some new type of order (3).