A Many-Sided Brain: The Jain Approach to Studying Consciousness (Unabridged‪)‬

Science, by definition, is an open-ended approach to understand how the world works by observation, experimentation, and modeling. But underlining this human process is our ability to be wrong, to be corrected, and to change our views over time. As such, science invites contravening ideas that can compete with each other. This allows for its progressive nature, since we can then determine which hypothesis better describes a given phenomenon and its range of behavior.

While Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is often regarded as the first Western thinker to properly codify what is commonly known today as the scientific method, it may come as a surprise to learn that Jain philosophy, which dates back to before the 6th century BCE, has three core beliefs that are contributive and elemental for any budding scientist: Anekāntavāda (अनेकान्तवाद), Syādvāda (स्याद्वाद),and Ahimsā (अिहंसा).

The first concept, Anekāntavāda, which means “many-sidedness,” states that truth, like an ocean, has varying features and that our approaches to understand reality are inevitably partial or limited. Thus, whatever stance orposition we take must be bracketed, keeping in mind that others may have perceived what we ourselves have not. It engenders an openness to listen to other points of view and seriously take them into consideration.

The second concept, Syādvāda, is generally translated to mean that all final appraisements or judgments are tentative since what is theoretically proffered is understood to be potentially uncertain, as in it “may be” or “perhaps could be” or “let’s wait and see".

This audiobook explores how the scientific study of consciousness can greatly benefit from a Jainistperspective. Written by Professor Andrea Diem-Lane, Professor of Philosophy and Chairperson of the Philosophy Department at Mt. San Antonio College.