Abstract
The chapter begins by examining the nature of the European culture within which the contemporary discipline of Human Development took its first form and its difference from the psychological perspectives based on the Indian Culture. It examines the key ideas related to ‘evolution’ and ‘development’ as conceptualised by major developmental thinkers. Two broad metatheoretical perspectives—the Neo-Darwinian metatheory and the Relational Metatheory based on Willis. F. Overtons’s works are examined in terms of their ontology, epistemology, metamethods and their view on the nature of human development. The progress and limitations of these two metatheories are analysed with reference to the agenda of the rational age as outlined by Sri Aurobindo in the ‘Human Cycle’.
As climbs a storeyed temple-tower to heaven
Built by the aspiring soul of man to live
Near to his dream of the Invisible.
Infinity calls to it as it dreams and climbs;
Mounting into great voiceless stillnesses
It marries the earth to screened eternities.
(Sri Aurobindo 1997a, p. 98)
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Gupta, M. (2014). The Contemporary Discipline of Human Development: The Dominant Metatheories. In: Sri Aurobindo's Vision of Integral Human Development. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1904-0_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1904-0_4
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