From neurocognitive and computational models to śāstra and paramparā

Abstract

Cognitive science has historically explored how information is processed in both biological and artificial systems. By focusing on functional and structural aspects of cognition, it has given rise to a variety of paradigms to study cognitive processes, generally described in terms of information-processing dynamics. From neural networks and bio-inspired algorithms to agent-based models, these approaches have brought very valuable insights, but they have overlooked fundamental questions regarding subjectivity, identity, and the nature of consciousness. In contrast, Indic knowledge systems have, over centuries, developed elaborate frameworks not only to understand attention, memory or reasoning, but also to dissect the nature of experience. Indic traditions have developed phenomenological methods to cultivate particular bhāvas, re-architecting human experience and deconstructing self-referential cognitive constructs. While western clinical psychology has largely been oriented towards the preservation and regulation of the egoic self, śāstras have explored how to transcend the ego-bound identity (ahaṃkāra). Similarly, while cognitive and computer scientists have implemented silicon-based systems that replicate mental operations; sādhakas have focused on empirically transcending their own cognitive and perceptual modalities. In this essay, the argument is that a proper engagement with the ontological and epistemological frameworks preserved in the śāstras and transmitted through living paramparās can enable cognitive scientists to move beyond their prevailing conceptual and methodological biases. In that regard, this research argues for a transcultural approach in which śāstras and paramparās are globally recognized in the context of cognitive science, complementing computational and neurocentric models without reducing Indic categories to Western equivalents or translating them into psychometric or neurophysiological terms.