Abstract

In this paper I present a project of the dissertation Self-knowledge in philosophies of Śankara and Schopenhauer that is a comparative analysis of a process and a concept of ‘self-knowledge’ as viewed by representatives of different philosophical traditions – Śankara in the East and Schopenhauer in the West. The aim of the study is defining discovery procedures and a subject/object relationship in self-knowledge. From the point of view of metaphysics, the nature of the subject and object of self-knowledge, i.e. the self and consciousness of a person is described, and from the perspective of epistemology – ways to knowing it. The discussion begins with a presentation of Śankara’s views on the self in a state of dream based on his commentaries to The Upanishads, Brahmasutra and Gaudapadakarikas as contained in A.J. Alston’s anthology A Śankara Source Book, the chapter The 'States' of the Soul and Their Transcendence.