The cosmopsychist doctrine of Indian philosopher-mystic Sri Aurobindo has distinct advantages over rival panpsychist positions. After tracing recent philosophical debates about panpsychism, the author brings Aurobindo into dialogue with Miri Albahari's panpsychist idealism based on Śankara's Advaita Vedānta. Albahari's view is critiqued from an Aurobindonian standpoint: its Śankaran metaphysical commitments and eliminativist implications make it an unsatisfactory account of consciousness. Aurobindo's cosmopsychism is then summarized, and its distinctive solution to the individuation problem is explained: Divine Consciousness individuates into multiple creaturely consciousnesses through 'self-limitation' and 'exclusive concentration'. The paper concludes by addressing several potential objections.
Aurobindo's philosophy of 'realistic Adwaita' criticizes classical Advaita Vedānta on experiential, philosophical, and scriptural grounds. He argues that Śaṅkara's Advaita is based on a genuine but partial experience of the Divine as an impersonal Absolute, whereas a further stage of spiritual experience reveals the Divine Saccidānanda as both impersonal and personal, dynamic Consciousness-Force manifesting as the universe. Philosophically, Aurobindo questions Advaita doctrines of māyā, the exclusively impersonal Brahman, and illusory bondage and liberation. Scripturally, he contends that ancient Vedic texts teach an all-encompassing, world-affirming Advaita, not Śaṅkara's world-denying version. The article also explores implications of this life-affirming philosophy for ecological crisis.
Chapter 9 addresses the hard problem of consciousness—how conscious experience arises—and reconstructs Vivekananda's Sāṃkhya-Vedāntic solution, showing its relevance to contemporary debates. It first outlines Ramakrishna's mystical views and those of five Western contemporaries (Tyndall, Huxley, James, Clifford, Wallace), then examines Vivekananda's critique of materialist theories. Vivekananda defends panentheistic cosmopsychism, holding that Divine Consciousness is the sole reality manifesting as the universe.