“Pure Consciousness Is Found Already in Logic”: On Apperception, Judgement and Spontaneity

2017 ◽  
pp. 97-140
Author(s):  
Dennis Schulting
Keyword(s):  
Pure Consciousness

Action and the Problem of Free Will

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Gallagher
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Pure Consciousness ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Traditional Notion ◽  
Intentional Actions ◽  
Neuronal Processes

This chapter examines the concept of free will as it is discussed in philosophy and neuroscience. It reviews reflective and perceptual theories of agency and argues against neuro-centric conclusions about the illusory nature of free will. Experiments conducted by Benjamin Libet suggest that neural activations prior to conscious awareness predict specific actions. This has been taken as evidence that challenges the traditional notion of free will. Libet’s experiments, arguably, are about motor control processes on an elementary timescale and say nothing about freely willed intentional actions embedded in personal and social contexts that involve longer-term, narrative timescales. One implication of this interpretation is that enactivism is not a form of simple behaviorism. Agency is not a thing reducible to elementary neuronal processes; nor is it an idea or a pure consciousness. It rather involves a structure of complex relations.

Positionality and Consciousness in Husserl’s Ideas I

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-295
Author(s):  
Andrea Staiti
Keyword(s):  
Phenomenological Reduction ◽  
Natural Attitude ◽  
Pure Consciousness ◽  
The World

In this paper I argue that in Husserl’sIdeas I(1913) there is a seeming contradiction between the characterization of pure consciousness as theresidueof the performance of the phenomenological reduction and the claim that in the natural attitude consciousness is taken to be an entity is the world. This creates a puzzle regarding the positional status of consciousness in the natural attitude. After reviewing some possible options to solve this puzzle in the existing literature, I claim that the positional status of conscious experiences in the natural attitude is best characterized asunsettled. The act thatsettlesthe positional status of conscious experiences (i.e. our manifoldErlebnisse) is reflection. In reflection, experiences are posited as beings, either in a psychological or in a phenomenological key. I conclude by arguing that the problem of positing is of paramount importance to understand correctly Husserl’s claim that phenomenology isvoraussetzungslos.

Yoga and The Physics of Higher States of Consciousness

2018 ◽  
pp. 335-358
Author(s):  
Alex Hankey
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Cosmology ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
Pure Consciousness ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Action Refinement ◽  
Higher States Of Consciousness ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Inner Light ◽  
The Universe

Higher states of consciousness are developed by meditation, defined by Patanjali as that which transforms focused attention into pure consciousness, the 4th state of pure consciousness - a major state in its own right, with its own physics, that of ‘experience information'. Phenomenologies of states 5 to 7 are explained from the perspective of modern physics and quantum cosmology. The role of the 5th state in life is to make possible witnessing states 1 to 3 resulting in ‘Perfection in Action'. Refinement of perception involved in the 6th State results in hearing the Cosmic Om, seeing the Inner Light, and seventh sense perception. All require special amplification processes on pathways of perception. Unity and Brahman Consciousness and their development are discussed with examples from the great sayings of the Upanishads, and similar cognitions like those of poet, Thomas Traherne. Throughout, supporting physics is given, particularly that of experience information, and its implications for Schrodinger's cat paradox and our scientific understanding of the universe as a whole.

scholarly journals Sarvāstivāda Buddhist Theories of Temporality and the Pātañjala Yoga Theory of Transformation (pariṇāma)

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 963-1003
Author(s):  
Philipp A. Maas
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Characteristic ◽  
The Other ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Pure Consciousness ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Philosophical Orientation ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
Ontological Entity ◽  
The One

AbstractThis article discusses a peculiar Sā$$\dot {\text{n}}$$ n ˙ khya-Yoga theory of transformation (pariṇāma) that the author of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra created by drawing upon Sarvāstivāda Buddhist theories of temporality. In developing his theory, Patañjali adaptively reused the wording in which the Sarvāstivāda theories were formulated, the specific objections against these theories, and their refutations to win the philosophical debate about temporality against Sarvāstivāda Buddhism. Patañjali’s approach towards the Sarvāstivāda Buddhist theories was possible, even though his system of Yoga is based on an ontology that differs considerably from that of Sarvāstivāda Buddhism because both systems share the philosophical view that time is not a separate ontological entity in itself. Time is a concept deduced from change in the empirical world. This agreement results from the common philosophical orientation of Sarvāstivāda Buddhism and Yoga, which takes the phenomenon of experience as the basis of philosophical enquiry into the structure of the world. The intention that guided Patañjali’s adaptive reuse was twofold. On the one hand, he aimed at winning the debate with Sarvāstivāda Buddhism about how the problem of temporality can be solved. He thus integrated four mutually exclusive theories on temporality into a single theory of transformation of properties (dharma) involving a second-level and a third-level theory on the transformation of the temporal characteristic mark (lakṣaṇa) and on the transformation of states (avasthā), respectively. On the other hand, Patañjali intended to achieve philosophical clarification regarding the question of how exactly properties relate to their underlying substrate in the process of transformation of the three constituents or forces (guṇa) sattva, rajas and tamas of matter (pradhāna) that account for all phenomena of the world except pure consciousness (puruṣa). Patañjali’s theory of transformation is thus of central importance for his Sā$$\dot {\text{n}}$$ n ˙ khya ontology, according to which the world consists of 25 categories or constituents (tattva), i.e., of primal matter (prakṛti) and its transformations and pure consciousness.

Neurophysiology of Yoga Meditation

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy King ◽  
Ann Brownstone
Keyword(s):  
Brain Imaging ◽  
Sleep Onset ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Functional Brain Imaging ◽  
Imaging Studies ◽  
Pure Consciousness ◽  
Yoga Therapy ◽  
Functional Brain ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Yoga Meditation

Recent neuroimaging studies of brain function have led to an explosion of knowledge about psychological processes and states. In this paper functional brain imaging studies of Yoga meditation are reviewed. Tantra-based meditations activate frontal and occipital cortical regions involved in focused, sustained attention and visual imagery. The overall pattern of brain activation in Tantra-based meditations is similar to that of self-hypnosis but different from that of sleep onset. Pure consciousness, the ultimate aim of Vedanta-based meditation, also activates frontal cortical areas regulating focused attention but deactivates sensory areas involved in imagery. Functional brain imaging studies thus support the distinction between meditation with conceptual support and pure-consciousness meditation without conceptual support, a distinction that appears throughout Yoga meditation texts. Brain imaging investigations also explain how Yoga therapy may be helpful to those with anxiety disorders by reducing activity in brain regions linked to the processing of negative emotions.

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