Panentheistic Cosmopsychism: Swami Vivekananda’s Sāṃkhya-Vedāntic Solution to the Hard Problem of Consciousness
Panentheism and Panpsychism April 29, 2020 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.30965/9783957437303_015 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
Swami Vivekananda held that Divine Consciousness is the sole reality, manifesting as everything in the universe. This view, panentheistic cosmopsychism, blends ideas from Sāṃkhya, Advaita Vedānta, and his guru Sri Ramakrishna's teachings. The chapter reconstructs Vivekananda's arguments for this position, suggesting its distinctive features offer philosophical advantages over other theories of consciousness and merit serious consideration by contemporary philosophers.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Vivekananda's panentheistic cosmopsychism, which posits Divine Consciousness as the sole reality, deserves serious consideration by contemporary philosophers of mind and religion due to its distinctive features and potential philosophical advantages. |
Abstract
This chapter provides the first detailed examination of the views on consciousness of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), the famous nineteenth-century Indian monk who introduced Hinduism and Vedānta to the West. First, I present Vivekananda’s metaphysical framework of panentheistic cosmopsychism, according to which the sole reality is Divine Consciousness, which manifests as everything in the universe. As we will see, his panentheistic cosmopsychism combines elements from the classical Indian philosophical traditions of Sāṃkhya and Advaita Vedānta as well as the teachings of his guru Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886). Then I reconstruct his sophisticated arguments in favor of panentheistic cosmopsychism. I argue that Vivekananda’s panentheistic cosmopsychism, in light of its distinctive features and its potential philosophical advantages over rival theories of consciousness, deserves to be taken seriously by contemporary philosophers of mind and religion.