The hard problem of ‘pure’ consciousness: Sāṃkhya dualist ontology
Religious Studies May 1, 2024 Karen O'Brien-Kop
Drawing on the Sāṃkhyakārikā, a foundational Hindu philosophical text from the fourth century, this article examines the nature of consciousness as separate and autonomous from material reality, including body and mind. Consciousness is described as immortal, plural, individuated, and contentless, and the goal is existential liberation through being situated in pure, non-objective consciousness. The article explores how to understand this claim—whether as a mundane cognitive state producing affective dissociation or as a post-death state—and considers the motivation for engaging with a system whose freedom may only be realized in a dualist reality or after death.