The Philosophy of Mind of Kundakunda and Umasvati

Kundakunda and Umāsvāti are among the first philosophers in Jainism to lay foundations for of Jaina philosophy of mind. A key concept in their philosophy of mind is that of a cognitive faculty, located in and constitutive of the self. Cognitive faculties should be understood as processes or manners through which the self makes use of the physical sensory apparatus, as well as the actual application of the self’s cognitive potential. This chapter discusses the complex structures of cognitive faculties. Kundakunda takes the self, the cognitive subject, to consist in cognition, a claim which influences the way both thinkers classify cognitive faculties and the important distinction between perceptual experience and cognition.