Grounding Individuality in Illusion: A Philosophical Exploration of Advaita Vedānta in light of Contemporary Panpsychism

The metaphysical vision of Advaita Vedānta has been making its way into some corners of Western analytic philosophy, and has especially garnered attention among those philosophers who are seeking to develop metaphysical systems in opposition to both reductionist materialism and dualism. Given Vedānt...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal for philosophy of religion
Main Author: Leidenhag, Mikael (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: University of Innsbruck in cooperation with the John Hick Centre for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Birmingham 2021
In: European journal for philosophy of religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Advaita / Monism / Consciousness / Panpsychism
RelBib Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
AE Psychology of religion
BK Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism
Further subjects:B Adi Śaṅkara
B Brahman-Ātman
B Panpsychism
B Advaita Vedānta
B Combination problem
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
Volltext (doi)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:The metaphysical vision of Advaita Vedānta has been making its way into some corners of Western analytic philosophy, and has especially garnered attention among those philosophers who are seeking to develop metaphysical systems in opposition to both reductionist materialism and dualism. Given Vedānta's monistic view of consciousness, it might seem natural to put Vedānta in dialogue with the growing position of panpsychism which, although not fully monistic, similarly takes mind to be a fundamental feature of reality. This paper will evaluate to what extent Śaṅkara's monism can bypass the most pressing issues facing panpsychism, namely combination and individuation problems. As will be seen in this paper, while Advaita Vedānta is able to avoid some of the panpsychist problems, it struggles ultimately to ontologically ground illusion (māyā/avidyā) in a coherent manner. As a result, a conclusion of this paper is that although Śaṅkara's vision offers a promising route for those philosophers who take consciousness to be fundamental - including panpsychists - it cannot be uncritically adopted due to the problem of grounding Illusion.
Contains:Enthalten in: European journal for philosophy of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.24204/ejpr.2021.3163