An Inquiry into the Core Tenets and Philosophical Implications of Sankhya Metaphysics: Unveiling the Nature of Reality and Consciousness

Abstract

There is a strong propensity in the western philosophical tradition to conflate the mind and the conscious self. This tendency is demonstrated in the structure of Descartes’ Meditations, which, despite the extensive criticism it has received over the years, still serves as the most comprehensive and well-articulated statement of the assumptions underpinning the contemporary western conception of mind. Descartes thinks of the mind and self as being one by unhesitatingly identifying the referent of the indexical term “I” with the res cogitans, the thinking substance. Descartes’ well-known dualism between mind and matter is the result of the fact that thinking substance is, of course, metaphysically independent of extended material. Descartes also believes that conscious thought and subjective experience are unquestionably unqualified components of mental substance, and this specific method of classification has infused our conceptual legacy so thoroughly that the boundary he draws seems nearly self-evident. Thoughts and subjective presentations lie on the nonmaterial side of the dividing line, if a dualism with matter is to be entertained. I will provide a general summary of the Indian stance in this essay, as well as examine some of the alternative dualism’s theoretical ramifications and compare them critically to certain contemporary applications of the Cartesian model. The paper’s central thesis is that the traditional Indian distinction between pure consciousness and matter has special philosophical significance, particularly in light of the ongoing debate over the connection between consciousness and mental representation as well as the effort to provide a computational and/or naturalistic account of mentality.