Grounding Individuality in Illusion: A Philosophical Exploration of Advaita Vedānta in light of Contemporary Panpsychism
European Journal for Philosophy of Religion October 1, 2021 Mikael Leidenhag 3 citations
Advaita Vedānta's monistic view of consciousness is compared with panpsychism, which also treats mind as fundamental. The paper evaluates whether Śaṅkara's monism can overcome panpsychism's combination and individuation problems. While Advaita Vedānta avoids some of these issues, it struggles to coherently ground illusion (māyā/avidyā). The conclusion is that Śaṅkara's vision offers a promising route for philosophers who take consciousness as fundamental, but it cannot be uncritically adopted because of the problem of grounding illusion.