Comparative Conceptions of Metaphysics and Philosophy of Mind: Cross-Cultural and Historical Perspectives:

In this interview with the Essentia Foundation Rich Grego discusses comparative concepts of metaphysics and the nature of consciousness, with reference to intellectual-cultural traditions that have approached this phenomenon from an “idealist” perspective– Idealism being the school of philosophical though which argues that the nature of all reality is fundamentally mental, or a kind of all-encompassing cosmic conscious. While this view has tended to remain a minority report in western philosophy, psychology, and science, the dawn of modernity, it has nonetheless enjoyed a long and distinguished history in classical western philosophy, from Platonism to scholasticism, and in modern philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, and even physics, from European idealism and American transcendentalism to contemporary panpsychism, analytic idealism, conscious realism, integrated information theory, and consciousness-based interpretations of state vector wave-function collapse in quantum physics. This interview highlights in particular comparative perspectives from Asian traditions like Advaita Vedanta, and contemporary Western Analytic Idealism video1512148803.mp4