Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

Description: Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace and contemporary philosopher of mind John Searle join for a discussion and debate on Buddhist and Western approaches to a science of consciousness. Wallace, who's approach is drawn both from the inspiration of William James as well as his own background in the Buddhist contemplative tradition, addresses issues involved in both theory and practice of studying consciousness directly using introspection. Searle also agrees that subjectivity can be studied. He makes the distinction between two uses of the word "subjective," one epistemic and one ontological. He argues that as long as subjectivity is approached according to its ontological sense, there should be no reason why there can not be a science of consciousness. While both thinkers are similar in acknowledging the irreducibility of the first-person perspective for understanding consciousness, on closer inspection the two strongly disagree on the fundamental distinction of whether consciousness is ultimately irreducible to the brain or whether instrospection is a valuable means for investigating consciousness. (Zach Rowinski 2005-03-24)

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