The idea that meditation is a "mind science" is popular, but in this interview Canadian philosopher Evan Thompson argues that this claim does not stand up to either scientific or philosophical scrutiny. As one of the pioneers of the Embodied Cognition movement Thompson reminds us that the Mind is not restricted to the Brain and we must also consider how other recent discoveries in neuroscience fail to support the claim that meditation provides neutral scientific insight into how the Mind really works.

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Links and References:

• Evan Thompson's website

• Why I am not a Buddhist by Evan Thompson

• Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers by Kwame Anthony Appiah

• The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience by Francisco J. Varela, Evan T. Thompson, Eleanor Rosch

• Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind by Evan Thompson

  • discussed in BS 198

• Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy by Evan Thompson

  • discussed in BS 115

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