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The Inclusion Problem in the Philosophy of Mind: The Case of Advaita Vedanta and The Extended Mind Hypothesis

The Inclusion Problem in the Philosophy of Mind: The Case of Advaita Vedanta and The Extended Mind Hypothesis

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The Inclusion Problem in the Philosophy of Mind: The Case of Advaita Vedanta and The Extended Mind Hypothesis
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<strong>Centre for Philosophy School of Social Sciences</strong> a Talk on <strong>The Inclusion Problem in the Philosophy of Mind: The Case of Advaita Vedanta and The Extended Mind Hypothesis</strong> by <strong>Anand Jayprakash Vaidya &amp; Purushottama Bilimoria</strong> <strong>Date: 15 January, 2016</strong> Abstract : The term 'inclusion problem' refers to set of issues that one faces in teaching philosophy when one wants to include non-western sources in a discussion of contemporary views in analytic philosophy or phenomenological philosophy. Many philosophers in the US and in the UK have become increasingly aware of and interested in the inclusion problem. Their interest lies in learning how to include non-western sources into discussions. For example, one already finds lots of work on how to include Buddhism in epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and ethics. In this paper we discuss the inclusion problem for the philosophy of mind, by turning to Indian philosophy, but not to Buddhism, rather we turn to Advaita Vedanta and show how it can engage the contemporary thesis known as the Extended Mind Hypothesis. The particular issue we discuss is as follows. In (1998), departing from the framework of Anglo-analytic philosophy and cognitive science, Andy Clark and David Chalmers articulated and defended, what has come to be known as, the extended mind hypothesis, EMH. They argued, against the backdrop of functionalism about the mind, and for the specific case of the mental state type belief, that it is possible for a person's mind to extend outside of the boundary of their body. Departing from the framework of Indo-Analytic comparative philosophy, we show that the Advaita Vedanta School of classical Indian philosophy, against the backdrop of a specific form of panpsychism, defended an account on which a person's conscious experience, during an act of perceptual knowledge, is located outside of the boundary of their body. Using the work of Adams and Maher (2012), on how to respond to Adams and Aizawa's (2001) coupling-constitution fallacy, we argue that the Advaita Vedanta account of mind, AVM, can be taken to generate, what we call, the mind extension hypothesis, MEH –the view that consciousness can extend outside of the body in perception. Recognizing the problematic nature of panpsychism as a metaphysical view about consciousness, and following work done by Itay Shani on the real combination problem, we argue that the Advaita Vedanta account of panpsychism, as a kind of cosmopsychism, as opposed to Galen Strawson's micropsychism, allows for a response to the so-called real combination problem proposed by Sam Coleman (2014). We close by presenting a set of questions and problems for the Advaita Vedanta account of mind extension by engaging the work of Bertrand Russell on perception and neutral monism. We present the potential for a debate between Russellian neutral monism + indirect perception vs. Vedanta cosmopsychism + direct perception.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.