Panel I: Knowledge

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Much of the debate surrounding the relationship between mind and reality concerns the nature of both the content and properties of mental thought—what contemporary Western philosophers refer to as “intentionality” and “qualia.” As in the West, Buddhist and Hindu epistemologists from India and Tibet have studied mental events and cognition in terms of direct realism, representationalism, and phenomenalism. Within the relatively neutral framework of logic in ancient India, a system of validation known as valid cognition (pramANa) was employed to scrutinize the reliability of truth claims put forth by competing Nyaya, Mimamsa, Jain, and Buddhist philosophers. In his seminal book on the ancient Indian logician Dharmakirti, Georges B. J. Dreyfus contends that the pramana method provides a standard of validation—independent of religious or ideological backgrounds—that is useful for assessing the reliability of mental events.

Joining Buddhist philosophy professor Georges B. J. Dreyfus will be Stephen H. Phillips (Hindu philosophy), Ned Block (philosophy of mind), and Susan Carey (developmental psychology). The goal of this panel will be to contrast recent research on cognition with insights from the epistemological traditions of India and Tibet. Gary A. Tubb, Dharam Hinduja Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit Teaching and Indic Research, will be the moderator for this opening discussion. ←

Panel II: Experience

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Does consciousness have a causal role in the lives of human beings? Or is consciousness merely an epiphenomenal event? What is the relationship between subjective experience, thought, and action? Ancient Buddhist thinkers thought these were important questions and articulated a system of reciprocal relations between mind and reality.

In this panel, Buddhist scholar William Waldron will illuminate the ways in which he believes the Buddhist theory of “circular causality” (wherein the effects of former thoughts and actions provide the causal basis for future ones) complements some of those being expressed in contemporary consciousness studies. With reactions from thinkers such as Evan Thompson (philosophy of mind), Joseph LeDoux (neuroscience), and Robert Van Gulick (philosophy of mind), this session will try to locate useful points of convergence that will potentially lead to better explanations for the role and function of human consciousness. Discussion on this panel will be moderated by professor of philosophy Mark Siderits. ←

Panel III: Wisdom

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In 1890, William James published The Principles of Psychology and made famous the metaphor of a stream to describe the seamless nature of conscious experience. James was intrigued by this quality of mind but questioned it, and wondered whether consciousness only seems “... continuous to itself by an illusion analogous to that of the zoetrope?” Similarly, Buddhist philosophers recognize the continuity of mind to be like a river, but interrogate the illusion of an immutable “self.”

According to the Consequence (prAsaNgika) school of thought, mind and all things are empty (zUnyata) with respect to any intrinsically identifiable reality—because they are relative. Buddhologist Robert A. F. Thurman refers to this as Nagarjuna’s “Royal Reason of Relativity,” and on this panel will argue that it provides an innovative way of approaching the “explanatory gap” in consciousness studies. Panelists will include Piet Hut (astrophysics & physics), W. Teed Rockwell (philosophy), and Gary Tubb (Indic philosophy). ←

Panel IV: Meditation

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Much of the popular dialogue between science and Buddhism has focused solely on the ways in which “mindfulness” meditation may be used to reduce stress and improve health. Far less attention has been paid to the ways in which such meditations facilitate reasoning and the introspective investigation of mind and reality.

In this panel session philosopher Mark Siderits will pose the question “Is Meditation a Means of Knowledge.”. Members of this panel will look at how certain meditations, that are specifically designed to analyze the nature of conscious experience, may be psychologically therapeutic as well as pedagogically useful in contemporary studies. Scholars of contemplative traditions, such as Thubten Jinpa (Buddhism & Western philosophy) and Roger Jackson (Buddhism), will probe the inner workings and ideas behind practices like great seal (mahAmudra, rgya chen po), great perfection (rdzogs chen), and insight (vipazyana) meditation. Participants like Dr. Joseph Loizzo, will share new findings and offer their thoughts on how these practices operate in terms of folk psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy. The moderator for the discussion in this panel will be Buddhist scholar Anne Klein from Rice University. ←

Panel V: Ethics

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Meditation appears to be able to provide analytic and therapeutic tools for individuals to understand and develop their own minds. However, according to Indo-Tibetan Buddhist and other traditions, development of one’s own capacities is simply a preliminary to ethical engagement with others. Similarly, certain philosophers within the European phenomenological tradition such as Emmanuel Levinas and his interlocutors have highlighted the interface between epistemological questions and ethical ones.

This session will build on earlier panel discussions to explore the intersection of theories of knowledge about the mind, meditational and other practical modalities for engaging with the mind, and ethical questions about how conscious individuals can or should relate to each other. Ultimately, conscious individuals do not exist singly but rather under conditions of relationship and interaction. Bringing together scholars of science and ethics such as biologist Robert Pollack, Gareth Sparham (Buddhism), Edith Wyschogrod (philosophy), and Jay Garfield (philosophy & Buddhism), this final panel will consider both the cognitive and ethical implications of the relational dimension of reality. ←