Abstract This chapter presents a historical background of mirror models of consciousness in Indian philosophy. The point of departure is the early Vedic theory of resemblances between human and divine realms. I argue that later theories of reflection preserve the general structure of the Vedic model of formal causation. After that, I turn to the early theory of reflection in the Chāndogya...
Abstract This chapter explores the philosophical traditions of Sāṃkhya and Yoga, which developed a notion of mirror reflection to explain the illusory interaction between consciousness and the mind, regarded as ontologically distinct entities. These two schools made an implicit connection between mental representation of external objects by the mind and mental representation of consciousness....
Abstract This chapter focuses on the non-dualist tradition of Advaita-Vedānta, which holds that the multiplicity of individual selves is nothing but reflections of one transcendent self. This school develops the notion of ahaṃkāra (the “I-maker”) as an entity supervenient upon the illusory identity between the mind and consciousness and mediating between the two. The chapter examines, for the...