Philosophy and Science: An Exploratory Approach to Consciousness

Back of the Book

Consciousness is a particularly unified phenomenon which has of late drawn the attention of
scholars of different disciplines all over world. But the opinions of these scholars are so
varied that it is very difficult to have any kind of consensus- though everyone, perhaps, feels
the urgency of exploring this mystery. The Institute presented an international seminar on the
subject Philosophy and Science: An Exploratory Approach to Consciousness on 8 and
9 February 2002.
The seminar was inaugurated y Swami Ranganathananda, President of the Ramakrishna Math
and Ramakrishna Mission, and Professor Karl H. Pribram, Professor Emeritus, Standford
University, gave the keynote address of the inaugural session. This was followed by four
academic sessions on two days and the valedictory session. The main feature of the
valedictory session was a panel discussion among five scholars with Professor J.N. Mohanty
of Temple University, Philadelphia, as the co-ordinator. In all, twenty six scholars from
different parts of India as also from outside the country participated. In the academic sessions,
each scholar presented a 20-minute paper, followed by a discussion for another 25 minutes.
This volume contains the papers presented by the participants in the seminar, along with along
with salient portions of the question- and- answer sessions.
Consciousness is a particularly unified phenomenon which has of late drawn the attention of
scholars of different disciplines all over world. However, the opinions of these scholars are so
varied that it is very difficult to have any kind of consensus-though everyone feels the
urgency of exploring this mystery. On 8 and 9 February 2002, the Institute presented an
international seminar on the subject Philosophy and Science: An Exploratory Approach to
Consciousness, in which twenty-six scholars from different parts of India as also from
outside the country participated. Every scholar presented a 20-minute paper, and each paper
was followed by a discussion for another 25 minutes. Thus it was possible to have some
meaningful exchanges of views.
The inaugural meeting received the benediction of Swami Ranganthanandaji Maharaj,
President of the Rammakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. The keynote address was
presented by Prof. Karl H. Probram, Professor Emeritus, Standford University. Swami
Smaranananda, General Secretary, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, also gave a
short address. The meeting was chaired by M.V.S. Valiathan, President, Indian National
Science Academy.
An interesting feature of the valedictory session was the brief summing up of the proceedings
by Prof. Samir Bhattacharya, Director, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology. This was
followed by a panel discussion among five scholars with Prof. J.N.Mohanty of Temple
University, Philadelphia, as the co-ordianator. This discussion helped to clarify the subject
further for people.
We are grateful to the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, for its active support and
financial assistance to the Institute for the seminar. The Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research, New Delhi, also lent financial help to the Institute to partially meet the expenses,
and for this we express our thanks.
This volume contains the papers presented bu the participants in the seminar, along with
salient portons of the interesting question-and 0answer sessions that followed. We are
thankful to Prof. Pradyot Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Dr Samir Bhattacharya, prof. Sisir Roy, Dr
Debabrata Sen Sarma, Dr Dipti Pal, and particularly to Dr Visvanath Chatterjee, for editing
the proceedings.
We hope this brief this brief study on consciousness will evoke further interest among
scholars of different disciplines for more investigations on the subject.

Content
Publisher's Note v
Inaugural Session
Welcome Address 3
Address of Benediction 6
Philosophy and Science
Keynote Address 11
Chairman's Address 14
Vote of Thanks 23
First Academic Session 28
Science and Consciousness 33
Consciousness: Mundane and Transcendental 41
Understanding Matter and Myth of Consciousness 53
Second Academic Session
Sheaf Theoretic Foundations of Ontology (Categorical Interpretation of Perennial Philosophy
63

Explaining Consciousness: an alternative Philosophical perspective 82
Theory of Experiential Contiguuam 111
Consciousness-A Psychological Approach 160
Third Academic Session
The Anthropic Principle: Life, Cosmos and Consciousness 173
An Evolutionary Approach to Consciousness 189
Consciousness in Indian Philosophical Thought with special reference to the Advatia, Saiva
School of Kashmir 207
Quantum Information and levels of Consciousness 223
Fourth Academic Session
Consciousness: Mental States an Mind- A Comparative Stucy 244
Science and Philosophy-0 An Approach to Consciousness 288
The 'Pentaune' and the 'Nanoune' Models for the Mechanics of nature ' and Consciousness are
suggested 347
Intuition and looking for the truth about the world 373
Valedictory Session
Welcome Address 397
Monistic Indian Perennial Philosophies and Consciousness 399
Valedictory Address 407
Vote of Thanks 412
Appendix 415