Introduction and Overview Vedic texts describe the self in three words, namely, sat, chit, and ānanda. The chit is the knower and known, sat is knowing, and ānanda is the happiness derived from the knower knowing the known. What we call ‘consciousness’ is the process of knowing that operates under […]
Overview / Philosophy / Physics / Religion
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Why God is a Scientific Construct
Introduction and Overview Vaishnava literature describes four forms of God—Vasudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. These four forms are also said to be the masters of mind (Aniruddha), intelligence (Pradyumna), ego (Saṅkarṣaṇa) and mahattattva (Vasudeva), which are material elements in Sāńkhya. This leads us to ask: how is God the “master” […]
Computing / Mathematics / Overview / Philosophy / Physics
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Computers and the Mind – What’s the Difference?
Introduction and Overview This article discusses the widespread notion that the mind is some kind of computer; that the computer is able to represent knowledge, and this knowledge can be about the world. As we will see, this notion is silly, although people—who are either not physicists, mathematicians, or computer engineers, […]
Overview / Philosophy / Psychology
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The Mechanisms of Choice
Introduction and Overview When John von Neumann introduced the idea of the “conscious collapse” into quantum theory, he committed a heresy—or at least something that would have been considered a heresy up until that point—by introducing a causal agent called “consciousness” within science. Science until that point had worked explicitly […]
Overview / Philosophy
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There is Only Form
Introduction and Overview Since the time of Greek philosophers—Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates—it has been believed that the present universe is comprised of two things: form and substance. Forms are the ideas that exist even when substances don’t; the world of things combines form and substance, kind of like the form of […]
Overview / Philosophy / Psychology / Religion
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Perception in Indian Philosophy
Problem of Perception in Materialism How we perceive taste, smell, touch, sound, and sight is a fact about our perception, but it has never been properly understood in biology, psychology, or philosophy. The problem is that we suppose material objects to be the length, mass, charge, momentum, energy, temperature, etc. […]