Thinker, Thought and Knowledge in East–West Perspective

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Thinker as Self-Conscious Being. 2. Nature and Process of Thought. 3. Thought, Memory and Time. 4. Thought as the Source of Nature and Quantum. 5. Kant’s Theory of Knowledge. 6. Knowledge and Consciousness in Advaita Vedanta. 7. Perceptual Knowledge in Advaita Vedanta. 8. Self-knowledge of Advaita Vedanta. 9. Perception and Self-consciousness in Yogacara Vijnanavada of Buddhist Philosophy. 10. Quantum Physics and the Buddha Nature. 11. Epilogue. Bibliography. Index.

Thinker, Thought and Knowledge critically and analytically reasons that some of the philosophical expositions like “thought has created the thinker” and “higher-order thoughts are themselves conscious” hinder us from explaining our sense of unity of consciousness. This book presents and elucidates some observations - thought cannot create thinker; along with thinker and thought, thinking too is quintessential for individual experience to take place; thinker, thinking and thought are fundamentally one in self-consciousness; thought becomes the object of self-consciousness; and the modern science attempts to undermine the principle of causation - from the East - West perspective, and registers its disproval with the philosophical views of scholars like J. Krishnamurti and a few other modern philosophers. Coming to the knowledge aspect, the volume delineates the relative existence and knowledge dealing with the absolute reality and discusses it on the basis of Advaita Vedanta and the Yogacara Vijiianavada of the Buddhist philosophy along with Immanuel Kant’s theory of knowledge. The researcher’s approach employed in this volume should help the students of philosophy and other discerning readers take an analytical and critical positioning towards many a philosophical problem that they come across.