This is a fascinating quote from Eugene Ferguson’s Engineering and the Mind’s Eye (p. 13):
laukikānāṃ hi sādhūnām arthān vāg anuvartate |
ṛṣīṇāṃ punar ādyānāṃ vācam artho ’nuvartate ||
A loose English translation: “For the good people of this world, speech conforms to reality; for the seers of old, reality conforms to speech.”
“The philosopher Carl Mitcham gives design and invention their proper places in the scheme of things by observing that ‘invention causes things to come into existence from ideas, makes world conform to thought; whereas science, by deriving ideas from observation, makes thought conform to existence.’ ”While a lot can be said about it, including a somewhat artificial distinction, I think, between science and invention, what struck me immediately was the similarity between this verse and the famous verse of Bhavabhūti from the Uttararāmacarita, which I've already written about. I cite the Sanskrit here again:
laukikānāṃ hi sādhūnām arthān vāg anuvartate |
ṛṣīṇāṃ punar ādyānāṃ vācam artho ’nuvartate ||
A loose English translation: “For the good people of this world, speech conforms to reality; for the seers of old, reality conforms to speech.”
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