Society & Culture
Some of India's earliest philosophy in the Upanisads relied on an implicit theory of knowledge that saw the mind as a malleable material that 'becomes' what it knows. We look at how this theory, when it meets the beginnings of metaphysics, sets the scene for speculative philosophy as a therapy of self-expansion, self-deepening, and self-remaking. Here, rather than a quietist or stoic purpose for philosophy - as Pierre Hadot has suggested - we see philosophy as the mind's capacity to recreate itself in the likeness of the cosmos.