RS V ADVTA

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ROBERT SCHWARTZ (PRAGMATIST) vs. ADVAITA VEDANTA: COMPARATIVE TABLE

Category	Robert Schwartz / Pragmatism (William James)	Advaita Vedanta	Key Contrast
Nature of Reality	Pluralistic; reality is what works in experience; no fixed essence	Absolute monism; Brahman is the sole reality; world is appearance (maya)	Pragmatism embraces multiplicity; Advaita collapses all into One
Nature of Truth	Truth = what works practically; "cash value" in lived experience; instrumental and verifiable	Truth = unchanging knowledge of Brahman; eternal, absolute, beyond utility	Pragmatic truth is contextual and functional; Advaita truth is timeless discovery
Method of Inquiry	Empirical testing; "fruits over roots"; judge ideas by practical consequences	Self-inquiry (atma-vichara); negation (neti-neti); direct realization	Pragmatism tests externally in world; Advaita turns inward to consciousness
Role of Experience	Experience is primary; relations between things are as real as things themselves (radical empiricism)	Experience appears in consciousness; phenomenal world has provisional reality only	Pragmatism validates experience; Advaita transcends it
Self/Subject	Stream of consciousness; no permanent ego; self is process and flux	Atman (true Self) is eternal, unchanging witness; identical with Brahman	Pragmatism denies fixed self; Advaita affirms eternal Self
Metaphysics	Anti-metaphysical; rejects abstract absolutes and closed systems	Ultimate metaphysical system; reality reduced to single principle	Pragmatism rejects final answers; Advaita claims to provide them
Religious/Spiritual Beliefs	Pluralism; if God-belief "works" practically, it's valid for that person	Non-dual realization; personal God (Ishvara) is lower truth; Brahman is impersonal	Pragmatic validation vs. hierarchical truth levels
Knowledge	Knowledge is what helps us navigate experience successfully; no correspondence to fixed reality	Knowledge (jnana) is direct recognition of one's true nature as Brahman	Instrumental knowing vs. identity-realization
Action & Ethics	Action central; ideas tested by doing; emphasis on practical consequences	Action (karma) binds; liberation requires recognizing one is not the doer	Pragmatism empowers agency; Advaita dissolves it
Temperament	"Tender-minded" (idealistic) meets "tough-minded" (empirical); mediating position	Requires viveka (discrimination) and vairagya (dispassion); intellectual and renunciative	Both value balance but different poles
View of Change	Reality is flux; nothing fixed; open-ended universe of possibilities	Only appearance changes; Brahman is changeless substrate	Process philosophy vs. eternal ground
Absolutes	Explicitly rejects "pretended absolutes and origins"; open-ended inquiry	Affirms absolute reality (Brahman); relative world derives from it	Pragmatism anti-absolutist; Advaita pro-absolute
Goal/Telos	Better living through effective ideas; no final destination	Moksha (liberation); escape samsara; realize identity with Brahman	Worldly flourishing vs. transcendent freedom
Language & Concepts	Tools for action; evaluated by usefulness not correspondence	Provisional pointers; ultimately inadequate to express Brahman	Both see limits but different purposes

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SYNTHESIS:

Where They Converge:

• Both reject rigid dogmatism and "verbal solutions"
• Both emphasize direct experience over abstract theorizing
• Both are skeptical of traditional Western rationalism
• Both see concepts as instruments, not ultimate realities

Where They Diverge:

• Pragmatism celebrates plurality, becoming, and worldly engagement; Advaita seeks unity, being, and transcendence
• Pragmatism has no metaphysical finish line; Advaita claims complete metaphysical resolution
• Pragmatism validates what works in the phenomenal realm; Advaita dismisses the phenomenal as ultimately unreal
• James's stream of consciousness denies permanent self; Advaita's Atman asserts eternal witness

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TAGLINE: Pragmatism swims in the river of experience, testing what works; Advaita discovers it was never wet—it IS the unchanging witness watching the river flow.