Raˉmaˉnuja's cosmopsychist-panentheistic solution to the hard problem of consciousness
Publication Date
1-1-2025
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Religious Studies
DOI
10.1017/S0034412525100838
Abstract
Recent decades have seen a renewal of interest in panpsychism as a solution to the hard problem of consciousness. This has, in part, also driven an increase in interest in classical Indian philosophical traditions among analytic philosophers of mind. Many of these cross-cultural studies pertaining to panpsychism (and cosmopsychism) have focused on one particularly influential school of Indian philosophy, Advaita (non-dual) Veda nta, the most famous proponent of which is sankara. In this work, we would like to consider the view of another influential philosopher and the school that developed based on his view - Rama nuja (eleventh century CE) and Viśiá1-Avaita (qualified non-dualism) Vedta. We argue that a cosmopsychist-panentheistic metaphysics that is motivated by Rauja's views offers a solution to the hard problem that is preferable to other comparable views and could form the basis for a panentheistic conception of God that is compatible with the reality of the freedom of human selves.
Keywords
cosmopsychism, hard problem of consciousness, panpsychism, Rama nuja, Vedanta
Department
Philosophy
Recommended Citation
Anand Jayprakash Vaidya and S. Siddharth. "Raˉmaˉnuja's cosmopsychist-panentheistic solution to the hard problem of consciousness" Religious Studies (2025). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412525100838
