Pan-awareness: Building a bridge between panpsychism and Vedanta

1
Pan-awareness Building a bridge between
panpsychism and Vedanta

• Anand Rangarajan
• anand_at_cise.ufl.edu
• Dept. of Computer Information Science and
  Engineering
• Univ. of Florida

2
Overview

• Phenomenology
• Meditative phenomenology
• Pan-awareness ontology
• Ontology of subjects
• The combination problem
• Topologies
• Hierarchical frames
• Conclusions

3
Meditative Phenomenology

• Mindfulness Awareness completely focused at
  center of phenomenon.
• One pointedness, no split mind.
• Non-referential awareness Awareness zooms out
  and is radically decentered.
• Pure consciousness event (PCE), nirvikalpa
  samadhi.
• Fundamental awareness/content distinction
• Hindu and Buddhist philosophical schools
  longstanding debate over interpretation.

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Illumination
Visualization
Cognition
Emotion
Perception
Content
Awareness
Sensation
Irritability
Prehension
Fundamental nature of awareness/content
distinction
(Aurobindo, 1985, Wilber, 2000)
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Reductive Explanation

• Logical supervenience reductive
  explanation
• Almost everything is logically supervenient on
  the physical (Chalmers, JCS 23, 1995).
• Exceptions are
• Experience
• Physical laws
• Indexicality
• Panpsychism, dualism, idealism etc. cannot be
  summarily dismissed.

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Why panpsychism?

• Its logically possible, - says Prof. Analytic
  Philosopher with a contemptuous tone
• Marginal view but upheld by Leibniz, James,
  Whitehead, Russell, Hartshorne, Griffin, Fechner
• Fundamental approach to consciousness problem
• Affinity with Vedanta, Vajrayana, Hua-Yen
• Recent resurgence Seager, Strawson, Rosenberg

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Ontology

• Agree with Strawson (JCS, 64, 1999) When
  awareness present, a subject exists.
• When I am aware, I am.
• Fundamental level
• Subjects.
• Intersubjective exchange of content.
• Awareness NOT cognitive.
• Reminiscent of pan proto-psychism.

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Representation
Subjects and intersubjective network modeled as
directed graph
Phenomenology rides on topology. Connection
directions indicate propagation of
influence. Issues of spacetime metric etc. set
aside for now.
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The Combination Problem

• How does phenomenology add up?
• What about awareness of mid-level subjects
  James 1890, Seager - JCS 23?
• Intersubjective phenomenal content at mid-level?
• Quantum coherence etc. suggested as objective
  criteria.
• Ontology of subjects as a way out?

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William James on combination problem
Where the elemental units are supposed to be
feelings, the case is in no wise altered. Take a
hundred of them, shuffle them and pack them as
close together as you can (whatever that might
mean) still each remains the same feeling it
always was, shut in its own skin, windowless,
ignorant of what the other feelings are and mean.
There would be a hundred-and-first feeling there,
if, when a group or series of such feeling were
set up, a consciousness belonging to the group as
such should emerge (James, 1890)
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Awareness and content

• James confusion between awareness and content
• Subjects Ontologization of awareness
• Feelings dont add up but what about subjects?
• Compound subjects (Whitehead, 1928).
• Leverage Atman Brahman?

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Structure of awareness
One-pointedness mode
Decentered mode
Phenomenological clue to combination problem
Bypass issue of existence of topology prior to
phenomenology
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Combination principle?

• Awareness binds configuration of lower level
  subjects
• Binding can range from one-pointed focus to a
  decentered zoomed out focus.
• Binding is dynamic Tacit spacetime assumptions
  Rosenberg thesis, 1997.
• Leads to a hierarchical topology of subjects

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Representation
Topology connects higher level subject with
lower level subjects possibility space
Rosenberg, 1997. Momentary awareness
combination of lower-level subjects. Bypass
spacetime issues
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Subject topologies
time
The Many become One and are increased by One
(Whitehead, 1928)
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Subject topologies (contd.)
Emergence model
More is different ( Philip Anderson, 1972)
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Subject topologies (contd.)
The One and the Many create the Few
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Panpsychism and Vedanta

• Regardless of Advaita, Visistadvaita or Dvaita
  (Tattvavâda) orientation, Vedanta philosophies
  implicitly tell a combination story
• All agree on the PAN aspect of awareness
• Main difference ultimate nature of subjects
  irrelevant here.
• Potential meeting ground (Griffin and Smith,
  1990).

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Conclusions

• Awareness/Content distinction fundamental
• When I am aware, I am
• Awareness all the way down Pan-awareness
• Combination problem for panpsychism
• Compound subjects but not compound objects
• Topology of subjects
• Different Vedantas can still play role

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Bibliography

• Swami Sachidananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,
  Integral Yoga Pub., 1990.
• Arthur Deikman, IAwareness, JCS, 34, 1996.
• David Chalmers, The Conscious Mind, Oxford Univ.
  Press, 1996.
• Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Lotus Press,
  1985.
• Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, Free
  Press, 1928.
• Galen Strawson, The Self, JCS, 45-6, 1997.
• Gregg Rosenberg, A Place for Consciousness in the
  Natural World, Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Indiana,
  1997.
• Ken Wilber, Integral Psychology, Shambhala, 2000.
• David Ray Griffin and Huston Smith, Primordial
  Truth and Postmodern Theology, SUNY Press, 1990.
• William James, Principles of Psychology, 1890,
  Dover, 1955.
• William Seager, Consciousness, Information and
  Panpsychism, JCS, 23, 1995.
• Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy,
  Oxford Univ. Press, 1988.
• Barry Dainton, The Gaze of Consciousness, JCS,
  92, 2002.
• Eliot Deutsch, Advaita Vedanta, Univ. of Hawaii
  Press, 1969.
• Christian de Quincey, Radical Nature, Invisible
  Cities Press, 2002.

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Discussion

• When I am aware, I am.
• Combination problem Clues from phenomenology.
• Awareness operator - higher-level subjects.
• Distinction between ontology and representation.
• No a priori commitment to dual-aspect theory.
• Probabilistic hierarchical model with emergent
  constraints.

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Phenomenology

• Migraine headaches Reliable and repeatable
  phenomena.
• Two distinct modes of awareness
• Awareness concentrated at center of migraine.
• Awareness detaches and is decentered.
• Oscillation between modes.
• Loss of awareness.

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Intersubjectivity

• Hargenss JCS, 812 (2001) taxonomy
• Intersubjectivity as spirit. Transcendental.
• Intersubjectivity as context Mesh.
• Intersubjectivity as resonance
• Worldspace. Ontological Empathy, Zelig.
• Worldview Epistemological Culture.
• Intersubjectivity as relationship
• It-It, I-It, I-I.

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Representation

• Taking van Gulicks JCS, 89-10 distinction
  between ontology and representation seriously.
• Different from most standard ontologies.

Ontology Subjects Intersubjectivity Phenomenal
content Compound subject Momentary awareness
Representation Objects Relations Properties Part
/whole relation Processes