AICS Founder and President – Clarke Scott
Clarke Scott: Founder and President of the AICS
Clarke Scott is a graduate student in the department of philosophy at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He is also a fully ordained Buddhist monk in the Tibetan tradition and has studied with the Tibetan lama Geshe Thubten Loden of Sera Je monastery since 1995. In that time he has studied Buddhist epistemology, Madhyamaka philosophy, Buddhanature, Abhidharma and Vajrayana directly with Geshe Loden.
Clarke is currently working on his PhD thesis entitled: From the Given to the Givenless: A Critical Analysis of No-Self and the Givenness of First-person Experience. Thesis submission date: February 2012.
My area of research interest lies in Buddhist philosophy and Philosophy of Mind. I am particularly interested in rigorous scientific investigation of the nature and origin of consciousness and its relation to dispositional narrative. Cognitive sciences have brought us objective, third-person investigative techniques to the study of attention, emotion, and other aspects of consciousness. And the work of philosophically minded scientists such as Francisco Varela with his work in neurophenomenology, has brought consciousness studies to the foreground of Western researchers. Yet, there is still no consensus or even a clear understanding of the nature of consciousness and therefore there is still much work to be done. It is my belief that cognitive science must include a first-person approach to research for clarity to obtain. This is where contemplative traditions such as Buddhism can make a contribution to modernity. In that regards, this is where I see my future, that is, helping in some small way to bring these two traditions into conversation.
Clarke Scott also has a personal website where he publishes articles and essays on Buddhism, meditation, his life as a Buddhist monk and its relation to modernity.
