Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!kovsky
From: kovsky@netcom.com (Bob Kovsky)
Subject: Re: Consciousness in Hindu's Sankhya System
Message-ID: <kovskyD5I4o9.4AL@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <departedD3vKy5.M3B@netcom.com> <D584q5.Mqu@ucc.su.OZ.AU> <3k1knq$mqg@oznet03.ozemail.com.au> <D5Ev75.n49@ucc.su.oz.au>
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 1995 21:50:33 GMT
Lines: 38
Sender: kovsky@netcom16.netcom.com

In article <D5Ev75.n49@ucc.su.oz.au>, Vic Cinc <vicc@ucc.su.oz.au> wrote:
>
>: How can we know that silicon isn't conscious?  Some Eastern religions
>: maintain that all matter has degrees of consciousness.
>
>while this is an interesting point of view, what does it mean??
>and more to the point how can we tell?

	I am not sure about "Eastern religions," which is vague and 
covers a lot of territory, but I am familiar with the Sankhya tradition 
in Hindu thought, which is the philosophical underpinning of yoga and 
Saivism (the complex of concepts focussed on the god Siva).

	Sankhya is a dualistic philosophy, which posits elemental matter
(Prakriti) and elemental consciousness (Purusha, sometimes called "the
person.") Reality unfolds when the two interpenetrate.  (If you have seen
the famous statue of "dancing Siva," the god plays a small drum.  The drum
is formed by the conjunction of an upward-facing cone -- the male
principle, Purusha -- and a downward-facing cone -- the female principle,
Prakriti.  The play of the drum, the rhythm of the dance of Siva, is the
pulsebeat of their union.) I am looking at Danielou, <The Gods of India>
aka <Hindu Polytheism>. 

	Of course, a dualistic philosophy resolves the mind-body 
problem.  It resolves other philosophical problems, such as that 
posed under subject-object.  It also generates other philosophical 
problems, e.g. it discredits epistemology as we know it.

	In any event, this approach does not get you anywhere here.  There
are, under the Sankhya system, levels of consciousness.  "Silicon," no
matter how refined or interconnected, has a consciousness lower than that
of an ameba.  How would you like to be re-incarnated as a microchip? 

-- 

*   *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *   * 
    Bob Kovsky          |  A Natural Science of Freedom 
    kovsky@netcom.com   |  Materials available by anonymous ftp
                        |  At ftp.netcom.com/pub/fr/freedom
*   *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *   * 
