Ins and Outs of Consciousness

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Greetings Advaitins all,

 

When I look at something I am aware of it, I see it or I am conscious of it.

To go

 

from that to the expression 'it is in my consciousness' is a relatively

harmless move

 

except when we are doing philosophy. Here we can easily be lured into

thinking that

 

there really is something in my consciousness an internal object of some

kind and that

 

the external object out there is an inference from it. That position is

known as

 

Subjective Idealism and Sankara dealt with it quite adequately in the form

in which he

 

encountered it viz. vijnanavada.

 

Why is the Idealist move so popular? There are those who hold that it is

the only

 

position that is true to the vagaries and errors that perception is liable

to. Though

 

it was a position taken by most major philosophers in the 19th. centure it

has not

 

many adherents now. Timothy Sprigge the Professor of Metaphysics at

Edinburgh

 

University is one and he holds (A Vindication of Absolute Idealism) that

Realism is

 

gradually eroded as thought becomes more refined. He distinguishes 7 moves

I think to

 

the ultimate position.

 

Sankara's philosophic context was one in which the Realist Vedic thought was

being

 

influenced by the apparently more sophisticated position that was espoused

by Buddhist

 

epistemologists. The existence of error (illusion, delusion, confusion) is

taken as

 

proof that it really is all in your mind. Therefore to immediately

forestall that he

 

offered his account of superimposition. In short he said error was the

proof of

 

truth.

 

We've gone down that road before but it's an interesting question to ask why

Idealism

 

keeps coming back. In my view it's easier to understand than Realism which

is

 

difficult. Body/Mind dualism is a more pervasive and influential background

than is

 

realised though it may be a discredited position within philosophy. The

word

 

'consciousness' itself is used freely from bhoga to yoga.

 

Just a note on a massive subject: Ciao and Blessings, Michael.

 

 

 

 

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