Keynotes Flanagan & Wallace

Philosopher Donald Davidson valued the importance of intersubjective exchanges. He once said, “Socrates was right: reading is not enough. If we want to approach the harder wisdom we must talk, and, of course, listen.” This sentiment is evident not only in the work of Owen Flanagan and B. Alan Wallace, but in their relationship as contemporary philosophers of mind (see blog posting 12/10/05).

As dual keynotes at the upcoming Mind & Reality Symposium (Feb 25-26 at Columbia’s Low Memorial Library), Flanagan and Wallace both offer unique insights on the nature of consciousness and the role of Indo-Tibetan theories of mind in contemporary thought.

Flanagan’s presentation is slated for Saturday and is entitled “Science for Monks: Buddhism & Science” and will be based on one of the Templeton Lectures he is giving at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Wallace’s address is Sunday and is entitled “Naturalizing the Mind Sciences” and will largely be drawn from a chapter in his forthcoming book Contemplative Science: Where Science and Buddhism Converge (Columbia University Press, 2006).

※ And please visit the Mind & Reality website for details on the Symposium and audio webcast.

Panel I: Knowledge

Much of the debate surrounding the relationship between mind and reality concerns the nature of both the content and properties of mental thought—what contemporary Western philosophers refer to as “intentionality” and “qualia.” As in the West, Buddhist and Hindu epistemologists from India and Tibet have studied mental events and cognition in terms of direct realism, representationalism, and phenomenalism. Within the relatively neutral framework of logic in ancient India, a system of validation known as valid cognition (pramāṇa) was employed to scrutinize the reliability of truth claims put forth by competing Nyāya, Mīmāṃsa, Jain, and Buddhist philosophers. In his seminal book on the ancient Indian logician Dharmakīrti, Georges B. J. Dreyfus contends that the pramana method provides a standard of validation—independent of religious or ideological backgrounds—that is useful for assessing the reliability of mental events.

On Saturday February 25th, 2006, Georges B. J. Dreyfus will be visiting Columbia University to present the target essay for Panel I: Knowledge in the upcoming Mind & Reality Symposium on Human Consciousness. Joining him to discuss this essay will be Stephen H. Phillips (Hindu philosophy), Ned Block (philosophy of mind), and Susan Carey (developmental psychology). The goal of this opening panel will be to contrast recent research on cognition and perception with insights from the epistemological traditions of India and Tibet. Gary A. Tubb, Dharam Hinduja Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit Teaching and Indic Research at Columbia, will be the moderator for this opening discussion.ༀ

Panelist Essays & Presentations:
• Georges Dreyfus’ target essay.
• Ned Block’s PowerPoint presentation.
• Susan Carey’s PowerPoint presentation.
• Stephen Phillips’ response essay.

Web:
• Paul Hackett’s review of Dreyfus’ book.
• Seth Casana’s (Carnegie Mellon University) animated thesis project.

Blogs:
• Song of Myself,“Ned Block is a Bad Ass”
• Neuroeconomics,“Harvard MBB Series”
• The Multiverse According to Ben,“Cognitive Neuroscience. . .”
• Act Systems & Services,“Indian Philo – A Small Look”
• i am the winternet!“IS”

※ And please visit the Mind & Reality website for details on the Symposium and audio webcast.

Panel II: Experience

Is consciousness merely an epiphenomenal event? What is the relationship between emotional experience, thought, and action? Ancient Buddhist thinkers thought these were important questions and so do many contemporary philosophers and neuroscientists.

Buddhist scholar William S. Waldron will open this panel with a presentation of his essay, “Buddhist Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Thinking about ‘Thoughts without a Thinker.’” Particular attention will be paid to the Experientialist School (Yogācāra) and their theory of a subliminal cognitive process called (ālaya-vijñāna), as well as the idea of “circular causality” (wherein the effects of former thoughts and actions provide the causal basis for future ones).

Evan Thompson (philosophy of mind), Joseph LeDoux (neuroscience), and Robert Van Gulick (philosophy of mind), will offer their reactions and thoughts on phenomenological theories for mind and embodied experience. Their discussion will be moderated by professor of philosophy Mark Siderits.ༀ

Panelist Essays & Presentations:
• William Waldron’s target essay.
(see also the extended online version here).
• Joseph LeDoux’s PowerPoint presentation.
• Evan Thompson’s response paper.

Web:
• “Mastery of Emotions” an interesting look at the work of Joseph LeDoux in Sci Am Mind.
• Read more on Yogacara in Buddhism—The E-book(scroll down)
• Thompson & Varela’s essay, “Radical Embodiment. . .”
• Van Gulick’s JCS commentary on Thompson & Noë’s essay, “Are There Neural Correlates of Consciousness?”
• Van Gulick’s entry on Consciousness in the SEP.
• Read Siderits’ review of Waldron’s book, The Buddhist Unconscious: The Alaya-vijana in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought.
source: Philosophy East and West, April 1, 2005.
via: HighBeam™ Research

COPYRIGHT 2005 University of Hawaii Press

Blogs:
• Jeff’s Space and Time,“Unjust Causes”
• Cognitive Daily, “What Causes What? Depends on . . .”

※ And please visit the Mind & Reality website for details on the Symposium and audio webcast.

Panel III: Wisdom

In 1890, William James published The Principles of Psychology and made famous the metaphor of a stream to describe the seamless nature of conscious experience. James was intrigued by this quality of mind but questioned it, and wondered whether consciousness only seems “… continuous to itself by an illusion analogous to that of the zoetrope?” Similarly, Buddhist philosophers recognize the continuity of mind to be like a river, but interrogate the illusion of an immutable “self.”

According to the Consequence (prāsaṅgika) school of thought, mind and all things are empty (śūnyata) with respect to any intrinsically identifiable reality—because they are relative. Buddhologist Robert A. F. Thurman refers to this as Nagarjuna’s “Royal Reason of Relativity,” and in this panel session will present an essay on how Buddhist nondualism offers an innovative way of approaching the “explanatory gap” in consciousness studies.

Panelists will include Piet Hut (astrophysics & physics), W. Teed Rockwell (philosophy), and Gary Tubb (Indic philosophy). The moderator for this discussion will be Paul Gailey (physics).ༀ

Panelist Essays & Presentations:
• Robert Thurman’s target essay.
• Teed Rockwell’s response essay.
• A transcription of Gary Tubb’s presentation.

Web:
• Paul Gailey’s “Is a Holistic Science Possible?”
• Nonduality in India & Tibetan Thought
• Denma Locho Rinpoche on the Two Truths
• Berzin’s“The Validity & Accuracy of Cognition of the Two Truths”
• Teed Rockwell’s Neither Brain Nor Ghost
• Garfield & Priest’s, “Nagarjuna and the Limits of Thought.”
source: Philosophy East and West, January 1, 2003.
via: HighBeam™ Research

COPYRIGHT 2003 University of Hawaii Press

Blogs:
MysWizard,“Nondualism”

※ And please visit the Mind & Reality website for details on the Symposium and audio webcast.

Panel IV: Meditation

Much of the popular dialogue between science and Buddhism has focused solely on the ways in which “mindfulness” meditation may be used to reduce stress and improve health. Far less attention has been paid to the ways in which such meditations facilitate reasoning and the introspective investigation of mind and reality. In this panel session philosopher Mark Siderits will pose the question “Is Meditation a Means of Knowledge.” Members here will consider this question and specifically how certain meditations, that are designed to analyze the nature of conscious experience, may—or may not — be psychologically therapeutic and pedagogically useful in contemporary consciousness studies.

Scholars of contemplative traditions, such as Thubten Jinpa (Buddhism & Western philosophy) and Roger Jackson (Buddhism), will probe the inner workings and ideas behind practices like great seal (mahāmudra, rgya chen po), great perfection (rdzogs chen), and insight (vipaśyana) meditation. Participants like Dr. Joseph Loizzo, will share new findings and offer their thoughts on how these practices operate in terms of folk psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy. The moderator for the discussion in this panel will be Buddhist scholar Anne Klein from Rice University.ༀ

Panelist Essays & Presentations:
• Mark Siderits’ target essay.
• Roger Jackson’s response essay.
• Dr. Joseph Loizzo’s “Meditation, Self, Self-Correction, & Learning.”
• Thubten Jinpa’s essay.

Web:
• “Science Probes Spirituality” in SCIAM MIND.
• Nalanda Institute for Meditation & Healing
• Investigating the Mind 2005
(Click here to read coverage. See also “Dalai Lama in the House”&
“Convergence & Conflict”).
• Insight Meditation Online
• Mark Siderits’ “Buddhist reductionism”
source: Philosophy East and West, October 1, 1997.
via: HighBeam™ Research

COPYRIGHT 1997 University of Hawaii Press

Events:
• Don’t miss First Person Science with Dr. Craig Warren (Feb 17-19) @ Shambala Meditation Center NY.

※ And please visit the Mind & Reality website for details on the Symposium and audio webcast.

Panel V: Ethics

(Text written by Annabella Pitkin)
Meditation appears to be able to provide analytic and therapeutic tools for individuals to understand and develop their own minds. However, according to Indo-Tibetan Buddhist and other traditions, development of one’s own capacities is simply a preliminary to ethical engagement with others. Similarly, certain philosophers within the European phenomenological tradition such as Emmanuel Levinas and his interlocutors have highlighted the interface between epistemological questions and ethical ones.

This session will build on earlier panel discussions to explore the intersection of theories of knowledge about the mind, practical modalities for engaging with the mind, and ethical questions about how conscious individuals can or should relate to each other. Ultimately, conscious individuals do not exist singly but rather in relationship and under conditions of interaction.

Bringing together scholars of science and ethics such as Robert Pollack (biology), Gareth Sparham (Buddhism), Edith Wyschogrod (philosophy), and target essayist Jay Garfield (philosophy & Buddhism), this final panel will consider both the cognitive and ethical implications of the relational dimension of reality.ༀ

Panelist Essays & Presentations:
• Jay Garfield’s target essay.
• Gareth Sparham’s response.
• Edith Wyschogrod’s essay.

Web:
• Religion & Ethics“The Dalai Lama”
• SfN News Release: “Dalai Lama Urges that Ethics be a Guide. . .”
• Dalai Lama Neurons/Mirror Neurons).
• Journal of Buddhist Ethics
• ETHICS UPDATES

※ And please visit the Mind & Reality website for details on the Symposium and audio webcast.