Consciousness and Fundamental Reality: Lessons from East Asian Philosophy

The notion that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of reality, perhaps even reality's most fundamental aspect, is enjoying a considerable revival in contemporary analytic western philosophy, with renewed interest in panpsychism, idealism, quantum-based theories of consciousness, etc. In the philosophical traditions of East Asia, however, the ontological primacy of consciousness has been a central feature for millennia. In this conference we focus on the question what are the most valuable insights and lessons that this rich tradition of thought has to offer to contemporary theorizing on the relations between consciousness and fundamental reality. In particular, we will be interested in potentially valuable ideas which do not have clear equivalents in the philosophical tradition of the west, or which have not been properly attended to yet.