Christian Coseru - Perceiving Reality: Consciousness, Intentionality, and Cognition in Buddhist Philosophy

One incurs a significant amount of debt in writing a book. Many people have provided support and assistance through comments and conversations along the way as I undertook this work, and I am extremely grateful to them all. This book is the fruit of a philosophical journey that spans four continents. In Australia, where this project began a little over a decade ago, I benefited greatly from regular discussions with Dirk Baltzly, Richard Barz, Ben Dorman, Jeremy Evans, Pamela Lyon, Chris Mortensen, Roy Perrett, Graham Priest, McComas Taylor, Sonam Thakche, Aat Vervoorn, and Greg Young. Special thanks are due to Royce Wiles for his nimble proofreading, often on very short notice, and for extending his hospitality in a most generous fashion. I am particularly indebted to the outstanding philosophical community at the Australian National University, which provided a richly stimulating environment in which to pursue ones philosophical passions. Special thanks go to Daniel Stoljar and Frank Jackson for patiently indulging my questions and for allowing me to participate in the life of the philosophy program at the Research School of Social Sciences.

In Calcutta, my first teacher and mentor, the late Sibajiban Bhattacharyya, introduced me to the rigors of Indian logic nearly two decades ago and got me thinking about the centuries-old Buddhist-Nyya debate, which in turn prompted me to consider the foundational role of perception for knowledge, which then motivated me to think about the structure of awareness. The germ of this book lies in an extensive conversation we had during my last visit to his house in the spring of 2001, when he persuaded me that if I wanted to understand why Indian and Buddhist philosophers have spent so much time problematizing consciousness I should look no further than at the character of experience itself. Of the many others Indian scholars and pandits who deserve recognition, special thanks go to Asim Kumar Datta who secured a fellowship for me at the Asiatic Society and thus gave me the freedom to pursue my research interests at leisure; to Pandit Dinesh Shastri Bhattacharyya who, despite old age and ill health, was always very enthusiastic in sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of the