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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Third Way of Cognitive Science and the Middle Way of Buddhism

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Even though cognitive science may not be established as a mature science, being rather a loose affiliation of disciplines which make human cognition a scientific theme, it has already had significant impact in the field of epistemology. Since the late 1970s, research conducted on aspects of cognition ranging from perception to language has laid the groundwork for a fundamental epistemological shift in cognitive science, which bears directly on the Western philosophical dilemma of whether reality is objective (and independent of our cognition) or subjective (and so our mind’s projection). My aim here is to trace some major developments in the history of cognitive science leading to the emergence of the so-called third or middle way, which is an alternative to the traditional chicken-or-egg problem of objectivism/realism versus subjectivism/idealism. It is an option developed by those cognitive scientists who have studied cognition as embodied action. My discussion finally points to the similarities between the new experientialist epistemology of cognitive science and the Buddhist tradition of Madhyamika (literally middle way).