Buddhism and brain science

Explanations of consciousness from both philosophy and cognitive science ar e traditionally conceived in terms of how an active self-consciousness rela tes to the various aspects of the world with which it is faced. This way of framing the problem is intuitive, but it also leads ultimately to an infin ite regress. A better approach to consciousness is suggested by Buddhism, w hich responds to the regress by arguing that consciousness and its apparent relata are, in any given instance, actually simultaneously illuminated iso lates of an underlying unity. This response circumvents the regress, but do es not offer an explanation of consciousness as such. Nevertheless, insight s such as this can be integrated into contemporary scientific theorizing ab out cognition and the brain with surprisingly fruitful results.