IS THERE CORRELATIVE THOUGHT IN INDIAN PHILOSOPHY

by Steve Farmer, John B. Henderson and Michael Witzel(henceforth FHW) argues that correlative thought is not confined to oneor just a few cultures. Rather, the deepest roots of correlative thought liein neurobiological processes. Parallel developments in correlative cos-mologies, it is maintained, provide a potent cross-cultural framework forpremodern studies in general. This is a very interesting propositionwhich deserves close consideration. The present article cannot do it fulljustice, and will merely explore one of its aspects in relation to Indianculture. But before such an exploration can take place, clarification ofsome of the issues involved must be attempted.What, to begin with, is correlative thought? FHW use this expressionto refer to “a general propensity to organize natural, political/social, andcosmological data in highly ordered arrays or systems of correspon-dence” (p. 49). Correlative thought is a recognized feature of Chineseculture (since Marcel Granet’s La pensee chinoise, 1934) but, FHWmaintain, “similar tendencies can be identified in every traditional civi-lization known”. Indeed, “[c]orrelative structures show up world widein premodern magical, astrological, and divinational systems; in thedesigns of villages, cities, temples, and court complexes; in abstractorders of gods, demons, and saints; and in many similar phenomena”.Our authors then continue: “The idea that reality consists of multiple‘levels’, each mirroring all others in some fashion, is a diagnostic feature