This article makes five main points. Individual human consciousness is formed in the dynamic interrelation of self and other, and therefore is inherently intersubjective. The concrete encounter of self and other fundamentally involves empathy, under- stood as a unique and irreducible kind of intentionality. Empathy is the precondi- tion of the science of consciousness. Human empathy.

Although the Chuang Tzu has been revered as a classic of Taoist wisdom for over two thousand years, the question of the text's origins have remained largely unexplored until recent times. The book was traditionally attributed to a figure named Chuang Chou who was active in the latter half of the fourth century B.C.E., though modern scholarship has demonstrated that Master Chuang himself wrote only the first seven chapters, the remaining material being written over a period of approximately two centuries. (...) Particularly important in this regard is the work of A. C. Graham, who argues that the text can be divided into five strata with varying degrees of proximity to the philosophy of Chuang Tzu. According to Graham, the latest stratum was written by a group which he calls the Syncretists, who are also credited with compiling the earliest edition of the text. However, since Graham finds no evidence of an organized school surviving Chuang Tzu's death he believes that the Syncretists compiled the text from a variety of different sources, whereas I argue that it evolved through a process of accretion whereby successive generations of Chuang Tzu's disciples appended their own writings to those of their Master. Thus, while I agree that the Syncretists were responsible for bringing the text to completion, I use textual and philosophical analysis to show that they merely edited a previously existing collection of writings by Chuang Tzu and his lineal descendants. I further use the Syncretists' own discussion of Chuang Tzu's philosophy to demonstrate that they were primarily interested in his mystical vision of the Tao, which served as the foundation for their "syncretic" perspective, as well as the unifying principle behind their organization of the text. (shrink)

This essay focuses on the theme of intersubjectivity, which is central to the entire Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It addresses the following five themes pertaining to Buddhist concepts of intersubjectivity: the Buddhist practice of the cultivation of meditative quiescence challenges the hypothesis that individual human consciousness emerges solely from the dynamic interrelation of self and other; the central Buddhist insight practice of the four applications of mindfulness is a means for gaining insight into the nature of oneself, others and the relation (...) between oneself and the rest of the world, which provides a basis for cultivating a deep sense of empathy; the Buddhist cultivation of the four immeasurables is expressly designed to arouse a rich sense of empathy with others; the meditative practice of dream yoga, which illuminates the dream-like nature of waking reality is shown to have deep implications regarding the nature of intersubjectivity; the theory and practice of Dzogchen, the 'great perfection' system of meditation, challenges the assertion of the existence of an inherently real, localized, ego-centred mind, as well as the dichotomy of objective space as opposed to perceptual space. (shrink)