georgiou@rex.cs.tulane.edu (George Georgiou) (11/28/90)
I am posting this for Subhash Kak. He can be contacted directly at kak.max.ee.lsu.edu --------------------------------------------------------------- Researchers in AI and philosophy would like to know about the 'Trika' [three-fold] approach to the mind that was developed over a thousand years ago in Kashmir. Speaking very broadly, this philosophical school argued that the mind should be simultaneously represented as being hierarchical ['krama'], a collection of agents ['kula'], and having a fundamental uncertainty or vibration associated with its precise definition ['spanda']. These are just the attributes contemporary researchers on AI and cognitive science would associate with the mind. Furthermore, the emphasis that was placed on indeterminacy [vibration] appears to have been very prescient. By themselves, as mere metaphors, these ideas might just be of some historical interest. But these ancient philosophers, with this framework, created a rich structure to analyze cognitive categories. It is my contention that the AI researcher would find in their work much that is of interest. The 'Trika' school was long ignored since it was believed (wrongly) that it was a religious philosophy. The term 'Shiva' that one encounters in their work is just a label for the conscious cognitive agent. It is for this reason that their philosophy is also called 'Kashmir Shaivism'. Many researchers in the U.S., Europe, and India are currently working on this framework for the study of the mind. SUNY Press, Albany publishes a whole series of books on 'Kashmir Shaivism'. Some introductory references are: M.S.G. Dyczkowski (1987), The Doctrine of Vibration. Albany: State University of New York Press. J.C. Chatterji (1986), Kashmir Shaivism. Albany: SUNY Press. Unfortunately these books, as most others, do not present the arguments of these philosophers in an idiom that the AI researcher would relate to directly. One's goal should be to directly examine the 60 odd books by the 'Trika' master Abhinavagupta in translation. Subhash Kak kak@max.ee.lsu.edu