CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Sharma, Bhavya Gopal |
|---|---|
| Title | The Universe as the Manifestation of Brahman: Physicalism, Russellian Monism, and Advaita Vedanta |
| Summary | In this thesis I propose the manifestation relation between Brahman—the fundamental reality—and the universe. Brahman which is non-dual consciousness manifests as the universe and its objects. I begin by arguing that the physicalist universe does not explain consciousness and criticize physicalism by discussing the knowledge and the conceivability arguments. I further develop the knowledge argument to demonstrate that knowing all physical facts entails the ability to identify a phenomenal fact. I then argue that the responses from the physicalists, namely, illusionism and the phenomenal concept strategy are not convincing. Next, I discuss Russellian monism and its forms—panpsychism and cosmopsychism—as an attempt to complete the missing picture of the physicalist reality. I introduce the binding aspect of the combination problem for panpsychism and argue that the thesis remains unconvincing. Cosmopsychism suffers from the decombination problem and hence is unappealing. Afterwards, I introduce the concept of Brahman in the system of Advaita Vedānta and take issue with its claim that the individual and Brahman are identical. I propose the manifestation relation as a better interpretive solution. I contend that this manifestation relation is a non-mereological grounding relation, which gets rid of the combination and the decombination problems. I conclude that my interpretation of Advaita Vedānta—the manifestation relation—presents a complete picture of reality. |
| Supervisor | Goff, Philip |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/sharma_bhavya.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University