[Chaturamnaya] The Foundations of Adhyāsa - 3 (Spurious Arguments: The Self is still the Body)

[S Jayanarayanan]

(Continued from previous post.)
 
 
Here are a few wrong arguments commonly given to show that the Self is not the Body. They appear fine on the surface, but are
actually quite meaningless when one probes further.
 
1) “It is ‘obvious’ that the Self is different from Body.”
 
Reply: If it were so obvious, why do several bright people among scientists and engineers strongly believe that there is
nothing apart from the Body (with the concept of Self arising out of the physical Body)?
 
2) “The knowledge of repeated knowing, of the form, ‘I know that I know that I know...’ in an infinite fashion shows that there
is a Self different from the Body.”
 
Reply: It is merely a type of nonsense in an infinite regress, masquerading as an argument. (What does it mean to utter “know”
infinite times? Nobody knows!)
 
3) “The Three States of Waking, Dream and Deep Sleep reveal the Self to be different from the Body.”
 
Reply: Surprisingly, Sankara does not anywhere in his response to the Opponent’s Pūrvapaksha utilize the experience of the
Three States. Adhyāsa is more fundamental than the Three States!
 
4) “Neurons ‘create’ the Self...”
 
Reply: This is actually the Opponent’s view that the Self is either identical with, or dependent on the Body. It doesn’t prove
that there is a Self independent of the neurons.
 
5) “Quantum Mechanics demonstrates that the Self is different from the Body.”
 
Reply: The jury is out on what Quantum Physics is really saying about Consciousness. Besides, Sankara could not possibly have
known about the developments in this area when he gave The Argument. There are many Physicists working in the field of
Quantum Mechanics, who continue to admit that everything is material or physical, including Consciousness (as emanating
from the Body).
 
6) “Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem in Mathematics and Logic proves that the Self is not derivable from the Body.”
 
Reply: In spite of much discussion by Modern Philosophers, there is no conclusion as to what Gödel’s Theorem(s), which is
applicable to Number Theory, has to say about the conscious Self.
 
 
(To be Continued)


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