The universe as aṁśa of Brahman: towards a Viśiṣṭādvaita existence-cosmopsychism

Abstract

Abstract Recent years have seen increased interest in panpsychism as a metaphysics of consciousness, as well as a burgeoning cross-cultural dialogue between analytic philosophy of mind and classical Indian traditions regarding panpsychism. While Advaita Vedānta has been the school that has received the most attention in this regard, Advaita’s foremost opponents within the Vedāntic umbrella – the theistic Viśiṣṭādvaita (qualified non-dualism), the chief proponent of which is the 11th-century philosopher and theologian Rāmānuja – remain underexplored. This paper seeks to investigate how debates within Viśiṣṭādvaita and contemporary cosmopsychism can illuminate each other, specifically on the question of the relation between the cosmic consciousness (the ‘One’) and the apparent plurality of entities we see in the universe. I interpret Viśiṣṭādvaita metaphysics as a form of existence-cosmopsychism wherein reality consists of one individual, the conscious Brahman or the cosmos-considered-as-a-whole, with the universe of sentient and non-sentient entities understood as aṁśa of Brahman. Such a view, it is argued, can overcome the problem(s) of explaining the relation between the One and the many faced by both analytic cosmopsychism and Viśiṣṭādvaita, and is preferable to other solutions that have been proposed.