The Becoming of Consciousness: 2 Mind and World: Greek and Indian Thought on Cognition

With the emergence of reflective thought, consciousness becomes explicitly relational and symbolically structured. In Greek philosophy, thinkers such as Heraclitus and Plato articulated the mind as a field of ordered relations, where perception, reason, and ethical orientation are interwoven. Heraclitus emphasised flux and the interdependence of all things, suggesting that consciousness is situated within a ceaselessly changing relational network, attuning to patterns and oppositions rather than static entities. Plato, by contrast, introduced formal structures—Forms—as relational anchors of potential, through which the mind can orient its perception and deliberation. Possibility, in this framework, is mediated by ideal structures, yet remains fundamentally relational: the individual participates in the intelligible order without subsuming the relational dynamics that constitute it.

Simultaneously, Indian philosophical systems offer a parallel exploration of consciousness as relational and processual. The Upanishads and early Buddhist texts situate awareness within networks of dependence, emphasising interior and cosmic alignment. Consciousness is not an isolated subject but co-constituted with breath, body, ethical action, and cosmological principle. The Buddhist notion of dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda) formalises the idea that every moment of awareness emerges through relations with conditions, such that potentialities arise and recede contingent upon the dynamic interplay of factors. Similarly, the Nyaya school highlights cognition as a process: perception, inference, and verbal testimony operate within a structured relational field, enabling discernment and ethical action.

Across these traditions, we observe that consciousness is simultaneously embodied, relational, and ethically inflected. Greek and Indian thought converge on the insight that what can be perceived, understood, or actualised is not merely given; it is produced through participation in relational and conceptual networks. The horizon of possibility is conditioned by the structure of awareness itself, whether through formal abstraction, ethical attunement, or meditative practice.

In this phase, mind and world are inseparable: cognition is not a solitary faculty but a field-sensitive engagement, where relational structures both enable and constrain potential. Consciousness is already reflexive, but its reflexivity is embedded within cultural, ethical, and cosmological networks that shape the contours of possible experience.

Modulatory voices: Heraclitus, Plato, early Upanishads, Buddhist Abhidharma, Nyaya epistemology.