Consciousness : Indian and Western Perspectives: Sankara, Kant, Hegel, Lyotard, Derrida and Haberma

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Sankara's notion of absolute consciousness: the ultimate principles of knowledge, validity and the limits of Pramanas. 2. Nature and status of consciousness in Immanuel Kant's Philosophy. 3. Hegel's notion of the spirit (Geist), estrangement and dialectical unification. 4. Critique of consciousness as a grand narrative Derrida and Lyotard. 5. Critical theory of Jurgen Habermas: critique of consciousness as a Grand narrative. Conclusion. Index. "The present book is an attempt to explore and examine the nature and status of consciousness in the intellectual traditions of the east and the west including such philosophers as Sankara, Kant, Hegel, Lyotard, Derrida and Habermas. The intellectual expedition in the realm of consciousness is extremely complex and multifaceted. In the extensive field of philosophy, we come across consciousness as an ontological being, an epistemological subject, a moral agent, an aesthetic being, a psychological being, a subject of Yoga, meditation and so on. It has moved the philosophical insight so persistently that the combined study of east and west has not solved the problem of consciousness once and for all. Obviously, there is a philosophical unrest, anxiety and apprehension concerning consciousness. There are three ways to approach this problem--Dualism, Monism and Pluralism. These three ways have led to the construction of three kinds of the worlds with three distinct concepts of the ultimate reality or the notion of absolute--the psychological, the cosmological and the theological. We can begin with our analysis into what goes on in our mind or the Antahkarana and try to find the absolute in us. Or we can begin with an estimation of the outside world and try to establish an absolute causality operating in nature. Or finally, we can resort to God as the ultimate unifying force between the inner world and the outer world. The Vedic and Upanisadic Rishis expressed their vision of the absolute or the ultimate reality in the form of humans, evoking responses at the varying levels of self-realization, worshipful devotion or ritual sacrifices with the method of a dialogue. In the west we cannot speak of the absolute without at the same time speaking of self consciousness of human mind, nor fruitfully pursue that interrogation itself unless we conceive our activity in doing so as one sustained and made possible by the absolute. The author has presented a brilliant critical analysis on various issues and their resolutions. The book will prove extremely useful to the students and teachers of philosophy of human consciousness and the researchers in this field. Common readers willing to understand the nature and status of consciousness shall find it interesting and inculcating.