ABSTRACT
One of my principal aims in this study as a whole is to show that the metaphysical framework that is for the most part shared by SaÅkhya and Yoga is best regarded as the result of a close analysis of experience rather than as a cosmogony or creation myth. Since there are several ways in which the phrase ‘analysis of experience’ can be understood, it will be incumbent upon me, over the course of the work, to clarify the sense in which this phrase can fruitfully be applied to SaÅkhya-Yoga metaphysics. In order to get this clarification under way, I shall in this chapter introduce two quite distinct approaches to the analysis of experience, each of which has in its own way been highly influential within modern western philosophy, and both of which I think have important contributions to make – by way of providing valuable analogies – to our understanding of SaÅkhya and Yoga.
