From: Ernest N. Prabhakar (ernest@alumni.caltech.edu)
Date: Sat May 13 2000 - 19:14:45 PDT
on 5/13/00 11:29 AM, cdale@silly.techmonkeys.net at
cdale@silly.techmonkeys.net wrote:
> Hmm...God rather than self? Isn't that dualism, something that is not
> part of the eastern thought process? I guess I should make myself more
> clear. I'm referring to eastern philosophy, such as buddhism, etc.
> Cindy
Well, yes, but I would argue that in Eastern philosophy God is a given, self
is not, so that this is a more appropriate referent to sentience. Besides,
the very issue of "sentience" and "definition" is arguably a Western
construct. If you're talking strict Zen Buddhism, I doubt they'd even
consider anything as crass as this. They'd just tell a Koan or something.
This is the best way I would to translate Eastern thinking into western
terminology.
For the record, I wouldn't consider myself an adherent or an expert in
Eastern philosophy, but I do have a fair amount of exposure.
*My* definition of sentience is the ability to make conscious moral choices.
Which I believe every human does (though not all the time), and no animals
do (except my dog Maggie, who clearly had moral deficiencies. :-).
-- Ernie P.
>
> On Sat, 13 May 2000, Ernest N. Prabhakar wrote:
>
>> I think the Eastern view of sentience is probably more about awareness of
>> God, rather than of self. I think some would even claim only enlightened
>> gurus are truly sentient in any meaningful sense...
>>
>> on 5/13/00 12:44 AM, Tom Sweetnam at savamutt@trailnet.com wrote:
>>
>>>> Well, sentience is an awareness of self, and a questioning of the rest of
>>>> it all, in the Western world. Hm...let's open that up a bit. How would
>>>> sentience be described by someone whose thought process is a bit more
>>>> eastern? (:
>>>> Cindy
>>>
>>> Eastern sentience
>>>
>>>
>>
>> -------------------------------------
>> Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D.
>> ernest@drernie.com
>> http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~ernest
>>
>>
>
>
-------------------------------------
Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D.
ernest@drernie.com
http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~ernest
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