This document compares views of self and identity between Western and Eastern philosophical traditions. In the West, philosophers like William James viewed identity as a sense of self-sameness but did not discuss the experience of it. Eastern traditions like Advaita and Yoga emphasized a firm foundation for self-sameness and saw the self as the observer separate from what is observed. Western empiricists denied the concept of self while rationalists affirmed it, in contrast to Eastern views expressed in Upanishads and Buddhism which discussed the nature of the self and observer.

1. By Anand Paranjpe

2. The approach …
In the Western world In the orient
 Self, ego and identity
 The division of : Self as
subject Vs. Self as object
(William James)
 Identifies and interprets
identity as a mere “sense” of
self-sameness.
 No mention of the experience
of self-sameness.
 Atman, ahamkara and the
concern for self-sameness
(nitya-anitya viveka)
 The division of : Vishayin
(subject) and Vishaya
(object)
 The tradition of Yoga and
Advaita speaks about a firm
foundation for self-sameness.

3. Influences of the Western-world
philosophers…
The empiricist tradition The rational tradition
 This school of thought was
based on the works of David
Hume, an 18th-century
Scottish philosopher.
 Mainly denied the self and
the concept of self-sameness
because it essentially was not
‘measureable’.
 Rejected ‘causality’.
 This school of thought was
based on the teachings of
Rene Descartes and
Immanuel Kant.
 Affirmed the concept of the
self on the other.
 Strong belief in causality in
order to grasp an idea and
therefore acknowledged the
“self” as the knower that
remains the same with the
passage of time.

4. Vis-à-vis the philosophy in the sub-
continent…
Upanishadic thought Buddhist thought
 The ‘Self’ has been described
as the ‘Atman’ and the
Vedanta has lain emphasis on
that self as the observer/seer.
 This paved the way for the
Samkhya school of thought
that speaks about the
observer (Purusha) and the
observed (Prakriti).
 The ‘Self’ was denied through
the process of ‘Anatta’.
 Anatta is the rejection of all
material things that are said
to cause attachment and
pain.

5. Yoga and Advaita
 The flow of thoughts can be, through discipline and careful
practice, controlled and eventually, stopped altogether
(Yoga Sutras by Patanjali).
 Only then does the mind reach the “fourth state” as spoken
about in the Mandukya Upanishad.
 These thoughts are what Patanjali calls “chitta-vrittis”;
which like a river (chitta-nadi : Vyasa); flow through the
mind.
 The ego is thus effaced and the stage that follows ultimately
is called Samadhi.
 Advaita speaks about the self as the witness and the only
factor that is changeless.

6. Advaita and pre-Renaissance western
philosophy
 Hume too had rejected the self but the assumption in
the Western world is in stark contrast to that in India.
 The Indian tradition has been built upon the
foundation of karma and rebirth.
 The west on the other hand believes in a single life, is
achievement-focused and is not based on the concept
of cause and consequence.
 Advaita focused on the Drg or the one that witnesses.
 Buddhism spoke about withdrawal from the senses
and the achievement of Nirvana.

7. Behavioral psychology in the west
 The western belief was that the self is being controlled
by an outside force over which we can have no control.
 The psychologists refused to enter the vicissitudes of
the mind and dismissed it as an “impenetrable
mystery”.
 It is thus that the desire to “control” others found
validation, so as to create order.

8. Indian thought…
 The desire to control humans does not exist.
 The various schools of thought have repeatedly spoken
about “introspection”.
 Understanding oneself was the underlying feature in
the Indian way of thought.
 The eternal belief in the fact that knowledge is that
which helps liberation (from the repeated cycle of
births and deaths) “Sa vidya ya vimuktaye”.

9. THANK YOU!