Neurophenomenology

Summary

The analysis of consciousness in religious studies is limited due to its focus on phenomenal experiences. While philosophy and psychology enhance understanding, they lack access to the neurological aspects of consciousness. Neuroscience has progressed beyond behaviorism, suggesting that brain evolution may explain consciousness generation. This presents an opportunity to combine objective and phenomenological approaches through Neuro-phenomenology, which can effectively analyze lucid consciousness, a key concept in many Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

AbstractAlthough the subject matter of religious studies is essentially phenomenal (e.g., conscious acts, attitudes, intentions, worldviews), the analysis of the basic datum, consciousness itself, remains of necessity incomplete because of the discipline's restriction to the phenomenal envelope. Philosophical and psychological analysis contributed to our understanding of consciousness, but, lacking access to the neurological engine-room of consciousness, their explanatory power is compromised as well. Neuroscience, on the other hand, has moved beyond the behaviorist denial of consciousness and recent research indicates that the evolutionary development of the brain's representational capacity may well account for its ability to generate consciousness. These advances provide an opportunity to marry objective explanation with phenomenological descriptions of the view from the inside, creating a powerful new analytic tool: Neuro-phenomenology. Comprised of an exaggerated differentiation between conscious state and informational content, and constituting an important phenomenological category within many Hindu and Buddhist programs, lucid consciousness makes an ideal subject with which to assess the analytic power of Neurophenomenology.