Visual Perception: Perspectives from Advaita VedÀnta

By : Tulasi Kumar Joshi

Page No: 481-495

Abstract
Perception is a prominent subject matter in all Indian Philosophical Systems (DarœanÀ) as it is in many contemporary knowledge systems like Cognitive Science and Psychology. Questions such as “What is the nature of perception?”, What are the different types of perception?”, “How does it get produced?” What are the means of perception?” have been the same, even as the answers are different with respect to different disciplines. Since the topic is common to all, there is a possibility to get confused or overlap the concepts. This paper discusses perception in the framework of Advaita VedÀnta, and tries to remove the possibility of confusion or overlapping other philosophical concepts from the Advaitic perspective. Advaita VedÀnta has set a new dimension with regard to the nature of perception which is uncommon to other DarœanÀ-s. This system has basically divided all perceptions into two categories - Conventional Perception and Actual Perception whereas other prominent philosophical systems like NyÀya, do not have this distinction. In view of this distinction it becomes very necessary to discuss the properties of both categories to avoid the ambiguity. This paper predominantly discusses the various aspects of visual perception from an advaita perspective. There is an emerging idea in cognitive science about nonveridical nature of visual perception which advaita also claims about all conventional perception. Implications for future theory and research are discussed.

Author :
Tulasi Kumar Joshi : Assistant Professor – School of Vedic Knowledge Systems, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Kochi, India.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/JPR.2020.15.02.11