Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Aug 3:13:938731.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.938731. eCollection 2022.

Believing is seeing: A Buddhist theory of creditions

Jed Forman  1
Affiliations
Review

Believing is seeing: A Buddhist theory of creditions

Jed Forman. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

The creditions model is incredibly powerful at explaining both how beliefs are formed and how they influence our perceptions. The model contains several cognitive loops, where beliefs not only influence conscious interpretations of perceptions downstream but are active in the subconscious construction of perceptions out of sensory information upstream. This paper shows how this model is mirrored in the epistemology of two central Buddhist figures, Dignāga (480-540 CE) and Dharmakı̄rti (c. 550-650 CE). In addition to showing these parallels, the paper also demonstrates that by drawing on Dignāga and Dharmakı̄rti's theory, we can extend the explanatory power of the creditions model. Namely, while creditions explain how beliefs influence both the conscious interpretation and subconscious construction of sensory information, Dignāga and Dharmakı̄rti suggest beliefs can even be generative of sensory-like information. I recruit ancient Buddhist texts in conjunction with contemporary cognitive science scholarship to offer a hypothesis for the cognitive mechanisms responsible for this.

Keywords: Buddhism; cognitive science; epistemology; meditation; perception.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

    1. Arnold D. (2017). “The philosophical works and influence of Dignāga and Dharmakı̄rti,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press; ). 10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.198 - DOI
    1. Arnold D. (2019). “Givenness as a corollary to non-conceptual awareness: thinking about thought in Buddhist philosophy,” in Wilfrid Sellars and Buddhist Philosophy: Freedom from Foundations, Google Play Edition (New York: Routledge; ), 214–256.
    1. Ayer A. J. (1967). Has Austin refuted the Sense-Datum theory? Synthese 17, 117–140.
    1. Barrett J. L. (2004). Why Would Anyone Believe in God? Cognitive Science of Religion Series. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
    1. Berkovich-Ohana A., Harel M., Hahamy A., Arieli A., Malach R. (2016). Alterations in task-induced activity and resting-state fluctuations in visual and DMN areas revealed in long-term meditators. NeuroImage 135, 125–134. 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.04.024 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources