Consciousness Mattering: A Buddhist Synthesis

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Consciousness Mattering presents a contemporary Buddhist theory in which brains, bodies, environments, and cultures are relational infrastructures for human consciousness. Drawing on insights from meditation, neuroscience, physics, and evolutionary theory, it demonstrates that human consciousness is not something that occurs only in our heads and consists in the creative elaboration of relations among sensed and sensing presences, and more fundamentally between matter and what matters. Hershock argues that without consciousness there would only be either unordered sameness or nothing at all. Evolution is consciousness mattering. Shedding new light on the co-emergence of subjective awareness and culture, the possibility of machine consciousness, the risks of algorithmic consciousness hacking, and the potentials of intentionally altered states of consciousness, Hershock invites us to consider how freely, wisely, and compassionately consciousness matters.

Reviews

Peter Hershock is one of the most important philosophers of religion in the world today, and this book is an extraordinary accomplishment. Weaving together elements of consciousness studies, neurology, AI technology, New Materialism, cosmology and ethics, Consciousness Mattering offers a comprehensive Buddhist vision for our contemporary world. * Clayton Crockett, Professor and Director of Religious Studies, University of Central Arkansas, USA *
The book demonstrates in an impressive way how western science of the brain can learn from eastern spiritual tradition. Consciousness is not in the brain, it is in the relationship between the world and the brain. * Georg Northoff, Canada Research Chair for Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics, University of Ottawa, Canada *

Author Bio

Peter D. Hershock is Director of the Asian Studies Development Program and Coordinator of the Humane AI Initiative at the East-West Center, USA.