Consciousness and Śakti-based Vedānta cosmopsychism: A philosophical reconstruction of Jīva’s Bhedābheda Vedānta

Summary

The paper examines Jīva Gosvāmī’s Bhedābheda Vedānta and its relevance to modern debates on consciousness, proposing a unique interpretation termed śakti-based Vedānta cosmopsychism. This interpretation is used to address significant issues in the philosophy of consciousness, such as the causal exclusion problem and the explanatory gap, framed as the individuation problem. The author also responds to certain objections related to cosmopsychism and the Vedāntic problem of imperfection.

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Abstract

Abstract This paper explores the implications of Jīva Gosvāmī’s (sixteenth century) Bhedābheda Vedānta for the contemporary philosophical debate on consciousness, thereby contributing to the broader and growing interest in the insights that Indian traditions may bring to current discussions in the philosophy of mind. More specifically, I develop here a metaphysical, coarse-grained partial reconstruction of Jīva’s thought, arguing that it can be interpreted as a distinctive form of priority cosmopsychism, which I term śakti-based Vedānta cosmopsychism . Needless to say, this involves both a terminological and a taxonomical task, as I seek to clarify how key aspects of Jīva’s thought can be articulated through the conceptual framework and vocabulary of contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of mind. In the final part of the paper, I turn to a more fine-grained analysis, examining the implications of śakti-based Vedānta cosmopsychism for central issues in the philosophy of consciousness, including the causal exclusion problem and the explanatory gap problem, here framed as the individuation problem. I also address some few objections, among them a cosmopsychist formulation of the Vedāntic problem of imperfection.

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