Biology and Cognitive Science both produce and provide knowledge that helps us understand--ourselves, our environment, our relationships--giving us a more controlled platform to navigate through this human life cycle.

I will assume my readers broadly accept this statement and therefore its corollary: that the need for certain types of knowledge, to solve perceived problems in a life cycle, is one of the key drivers to activities carried under various labels of science disciplines.

The statement about the importance of knowledge allows me to bring in the non-dual perspective. The non-dual approach enables us to understand what is knowledge by raising the question of the knower, i.e. who or what acquires this knowledge. This process then opens up issues of what happens when the knower acquires knowledge. We will first describe a non-dual approach to knowledge and then see if we can compare and contras what 21st century science has to say about it.

The non-dualist views the category of knowledge being described here as experiential knowledge, with evidence of such knowledge found in the descriptions of experiences. One may well ask - so how does an experience become a description?

First, we (have an, delete) experience. We watch a full moon rising. That observation of the moon is an experience of form in space. If we feel awed by that experience of seeing that particular form, that feeling of awe is another experience - an emotional one. We then begin giving labels to the forms in space - moon, stars, airplane, cloud etc. Each specific shape that we can distinguish as being separate and distinct from others with our eyes is given a label, a name, a word, which is combination of sounds.

So far, the non-dual and the scientific approach will lead us to the same conclusions. And this is where the non-dual goes off on a different path in two ways: first it talks about how both the experience (of seeing the moon) is a vibration and the experience of uttering the word as sound to describe the moon is also a vibration. Secondly it asks the question: who or what is this experiencer that apparently mediates between the vibration of seeing the moon and the vibration of the word, the description of the experience of the moon. The non-dualist's answer is that this experiencer is also a vibration, as transient as the vibration of seeing and the vibration of uttering the sound which makes for the word.

From the non-dual perspective, the world created by knowledge through language is a set of descriptions, which lead to its own set of experiences. The experience of full moon and that of high tide happen at the same time. From this experience of correlation arises a description that full moon causes high tides. Such description is considered experiential knowledge, as is the description that a full moon will rise on the east coast of the US at a particular time on a Friday in November. The fisherman in Maine can plan to launch out to see during that particular high tide - experiential knowledge leading to actions, which in turn lead to experiences. From Advaita perspective then, experience of forms, giving of names, forming meta-names (categories) of groups of names, linking names causally over space and time are the basic building blocks of knowledge, which becomes an experience in itself.

Let's take a breather here and see what 21st century science has to say about human knowledge and language. In his Stuff of Thoughts* Steven Pinker says (pp 427, 428 verbatim quotes):
(pp 427) Language is a medium that is public and digital, and so must hide the aspects of our experience that are private and smoothly blended: our sensations, our emotions, our inklings and intuitions, and the choreography of our bodies. Still, we are gregarious animals who like to teach and gossip and boss one another around, and few aspects of our lives are unaffected by our dealings with other people.
(pp 428) Humans construct an understanding of the world that is very different from the analogue flow of sensation the world presents to them. They package their experience into objects and events. They assemble these objects and events into propositions, which they thake to be characterizations of real and possible worlds. The characterizations are highly schematic: they pick out some aspects of a situation and ignore others, allowing the same situation to be construed in multiple ways.
(pp 428-429) Humans recognize unique individuals, and also pigeonhole them into categories. They distinguish stable categories that capture an individual's essence from transitory and superficial properties that they may happen to possess.

Pinker, distinguishing analogue from digital, is able to describe how the world of vibrations of Advaita is transformed into the world humans describe through language - in same way: of objects, events, categories, causal relationships leading to grammar and language.

So where does Pinker diverge from Advaita?
- He has not (yet) described the transitory nature of the experiencer, the
human identity, the 'I' ness.
- He therefore assumes humans are intentional agents capable of adapting their behavior, by understanding nature of the world through the facility of language. The Stuff of Thoughts therefore ends with a wave of a hand towards the light at the end of the tunnel, the mouth of the cave constructed by language, through scientific research and technology.
- Advaita, the non-dual, on the other hand, indicates that intentional human agency is also a transient experience of vibrations. The implications of this conclusion on individual identity, role of memory, and nature of time, requires long term contemplation.

It will be interesting to see where Pinker takes his research and
contemplation, how he begins to raise and deal with the question of the nature of the experiencer and the nature of human intentionality.
 
At this stage you may well ask - so how is this of relevance to me, who is equipped only for limited duality based experience, comprehension and communication? Can a non-dual approach show you that it will help improve your ability to navigate through life? Otherwise it is of little interest. That is something we may contemplate upon in the next article.
*Stuff of Thoughts ISBN 978-0-14-311424-6(pbk)