Philosophy East & West
July 1, 2025
Tertia Gillett
Abstract:Objections to cosmopsychism based on incoherence or implausibility depend on assumptions about the nature of consciousness that we need not take for granted. The nondual Pratyabhijñā philosophers encourage us to examine our own phenomenal experience to reveal the multiplicity of subjectivities within unified consciousness. Using this framework, I explore how our faculties for...
Philosophy East & West
April 1, 2025
Travis Chilcott
Abstract:Jīva Gosvāmin (16th–17th c.), one of the most important of the early Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava theologians, argues for a unique theory of mystical pluralism that shares critical parallels with the highly influential constructivist thesis advanced by Steven Katz, albeit separated by more than four hundred years. These parallels suggest a shared insight into the cognitive dynamics underpinning...
Philosophy East & West
February 1, 2024
D. Chi
The Contemplative Foundations of Classical Daoism (hereafter Contemplative Foundations ) is a compilation of articles and book chapters selected from Harold Roth’s almost 27 years of scholarly publications on the origins and early history of the classical Daoist tradition. The essays that constitute this collection seek to counter certain myths about Early China Studies and Daoist Studies that...
Philosophy East & West
October 1, 2023
V. Hejjaji, A. Sadasivan, Padmakumar Pr
5 citations
Abstract: This essay draws attention to some of the ideas and discussions in the classical Advaita Vedantic literature that have a direct bearing on contemporary debates concerning the existence of consciousness in the empirical world. Section 1 makes the case for pursuing a non-eliminativist reading of Advaita Vedanta by clarifying its position on the existence of the empirical world. The idea...
Philosophy East & West
July 1, 2023
Grzegorz L. Polak
Abstract:The Nikāyas contain several apophatic descriptions of a state of cessation that occurs during the life of an individual. Furthermore, some texts suggest that this cessation paradoxically coincides with liberating insight. This article attempts to draw out philosophical implications of these passages and to reconstruct the ideas serving as their basis. To make better sense of these...
Philosophy East & West
March 25, 2021
Hayden Kee
Abstract:This essay combines insights into the nature of language from yogic mantra meditation and phenomenology. I argue that phenomenologists can gain insights into the formative experiences that shape linguistic meaning from mantra meditators. Meanwhile, phenomenology can offer an original perspective on debates in mantra research concerning the linguisticality of mantras.
Philosophy East & West
July 7, 2017
L. Gasparri
38 citations
Abstract:The combination of panpsychism and priority monism leads to priority cosmopsychism, the view that the consciousness of individual sentient creatures is derivative of an underlying cosmic consciousness. It has been suggested that contemporary priority cosmopsychism parallels central ideas in the Advaita Vedānta tradition. This article offers a critical evaluation of this claim. It...