Philosophy of Mysticism

Richard H. Jones

Description

This work is a comprehensive study of the philosophical issues raised by mysticism. Mystics claim to experience reality in a way not available in normal life, a claim which makes this phenomenon interesting from a philosophical perspective. Richard H. Jones's inquiry focuses on the skeleton of beliefs and values of mysticism: knowledge claims made about the nature of reality and of human beings; value claims about what is significant and what is ethical; and mystical goals and ways of life. Jones engages language, epistemology, metaphysics, science, and the philosophy of mind. Methodological issues in the study of mysticism are also addressed. Examples of mystical experience are drawn chiefly from Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta, but also from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Daoism.
Preface
Postmodernist Concerns
Methodological Issues
The Analytical Philosophical Approach

1. Mysticism and Mystical Experiences
Mystical Experiences
Mystical Paths
Extrovertive Mystical Experiences
Mindfulness
Introvertive Mystical Experiences
Depth-Mystical Experiences
Mystical Enlightenment
A Typology of Mystical Experiences
Weighting Mystical Experiences

2. Mystical Knowledge and Religious Ways of Life
Experience and Knowledge
Are There Genuine Mystical Experiences?
Attribution Theory
The Depth-Mystical Experience and Its Conceptualizations
Mystical Experiences and Mystical Ways of Life
Constructivism
Nonconstructivism
Constructivism and the Depth-Mystical Experience
Can the Constructivism Dispute be Resolved?
The Possibility of Mystical Insight

3. Are Mystical Experiences Cognitive?
Can Nonmystics Judge the Veridicality of Mystical Experiences?
What Can Mystics Claim to Know?
Mysticism and Empiricism
The Principle of Credulity
The Analogy to Sense-Perception
Problems of Justifying Specific Doctrinal Claims
The Limitation of Any Mystical Claim to Knowledge
Can Mystical Knowledge-Claims Be Compared?
Do Mystical Knowledge-Claims Genuinely Conflict?
Can One Mystical System Be Established as Best?
Is It Rational to Accept Mystical Knowledge-Claims?
“Properly Basic Beliefs”
Ultimate Decisions

4. The Scientific Study of Mystics and Meditators
Scientific Study Versus Mystical Practices
Are New Theories of the Mind Needed?
Can Mystical Experiences Be Studied Scientifically?
Scientific Explanations of Mystical Experiences
Sociocultural Explanations of Mystical Experiences
Explaining Away Mystical Experiences
Problems with Sociocultural Explanations
Problems with Physiological Explanations
Do Natural Triggers Produce Mystical Experiences?
Natural Phenomena and Mystical Insights
The Compatibility Problem
Applying Occam’s Razor
Our Epistemic Situation
Is Naturalism or a Transcendent Alternative More Plausible?
The Neutrality of Science

5. Mysticism and Metaphysics
Mystical Metaphysics
The Status of the World
The Nature of Transcendent Realities
Consciousness
The Self
The Question of Mystical Union
Mysticism and the Closure of Mystery

6. Mysticism and Language
Ineffability
The Mirror Theory of Language
And Yet Mystics Continue to Talk
An Analogy
Silence
Positive Characterizations of Transcendent Realities
Mystical Utterances and Knowledge
Negation
Defending Mystical Discourse

7. Mysticism and Rationality
Rationality and Styles of Reasoning
Paradox
Resolving Paradoxes
Understanding the Paradoxical
Nagarjuna’s Reasoning
Mysticism and the Question of Universal Reason

8. Mysticism and Science
Scientific and Mystical Approaches to Reality
An Analogy
Beingness and Science
Mystical Experience Versus Scientific Measurement and Theorizing
Indirect Avenues of Aid
Science, Mysticism, and the Natural World
The Difference in Content
Science and Mystical Metaphysics
Complementarity
Reconciling Mysticism and Science

9. Mysticism and Morality
The Basic Question of Compatibility
Are Mystics Necessarily Moral?
Mystical Selflessness and the Presuppositions of Morality
Emotions, Values, and Beliefs
“You Are That”
A Metaphysics of Wholeness and Morality
Factual Beliefs, Values, and Mystical Experiences
“Beyond Good and Evil”
Will Any Actions Do?
Mystical Decision-Making
Mystical Selflessness and Morality

Epilogue: The Demise of Mysticism Today
The An

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie de la religion
• Philosophy of religion
• Mysticism

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 23 mars 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438461205
• Langue: English

Extrait

PHILOSOPHY of MYSTICISM
PHILOSOPHY of MYSTICISM
Raids on the Ineffable
Richard H. Jones
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2016 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Ryan Morris
Marketing, Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jones, Richard H., 1951–
Philosophy of mysticism : raids on the ineffable / Richard H. Jones.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-6119-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-6120-5 (e-book)
1. Mysticism. I. Title.
B828.J73 2016
204’.2201—dc23 2015027728
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface
Postmodernist Concerns
Methodological Issues
The Analytical Philosophical Approach
1 Mysticism and Mystical Experiences
Mystical Experiences
Mystical Paths
Extrovertive Mystical Experiences
Mindfulness
Introvertive Mystical Experiences
Depth-Mystical Experiences
Mystical Enlightenment
A Typology of Mystical Experiences
Weighting Mystical Experiences
2 Mystical Knowledge and Religious Ways of Life
Experience and Knowledge
Are There Genuine Mystical Experiences?
Attribution Theory
The Depth-Mystical Experience and Its Conceptualizations
Mystical Experiences and Mystical Ways of Life
Constructivism
Nonconstructivism
Constructivism and the Depth-Mystical Experience
Can the Constructivism Dispute be Resolved?
The Possibility of Mystical Insight
3 Are Mystical Experiences Cognitive?
Can Nonmystics Judge the Veridicality of Mystical Experiences?
What Can Mystics Claim to Know?
Mysticism and Empiricism
The Principle of Credulity
The Analogy to Sense-Perception
Problems of Justifying Specific Doctrinal Claims
The Limitation of Any Mystical Claim to Knowledge
Can Mystical Knowledge-Claims Be Compared?
Do Mystical Knowledge-Claims Genuinely Conflict?
Can One Mystical System Be Established as Best?
Is It Rational to Accept Mystical Knowledge-Claims?
“Properly Basic Beliefs”
Ultimate Decisions
4 The Scientific Study of Mystics and Meditators
Scientific Study Versus Mystical Practices
Are New Theories of the Mind Needed?
Can Mystical Experiences Be Studied Scientifically?
Scientific Explanations of Mystical Experiences
Sociocultural Explanations of Mystical Experiences
Explaining Away Mystical Experiences
Problems with Sociocultural Explanations
Problems with Physiological Explanations
Do Natural Triggers Produce Mystical Experiences?
Natural Phenomena and Mystical Insights
The Compatibility Problem
Applying Occam’s Razor
Our Epistemic Situation
Is Naturalism or a Transcendent Alternative More Plausible?
The Neutrality of Science
5 Mysticism and Metaphysics
Mystical Metaphysics
The Status of the World
The Nature of Transcendent Realities
Consciousness
The Self
The Question of Mystical Union
Mysticism and the Closure of Mystery
6 Mysticism and Language
Ineffability
The Mirror Theory of Language
And Yet Mystics Continue to Talk
An Analogy
Silence
Positive Characterizations of Transcendent Realities
Mystical Utterances and Knowledge
Negation
Defending Mystical Discourse
7 Mysticism and Rationality
Rationality and Styles of Reasoning
Paradox
Resolving Paradoxes
Understanding the Paradoxical
Nagarjuna’s Reasoning
Mysticism and the Question of Universal Reason
8 Mysticism and Science
Scientific and Mystical Approaches to Reality
An Analogy
Beingness and Science
Mystical Experience Versus Scientific Measurement and Theorizing
Indirect Avenues of Aid
Science, Mysticism, and the Natural World
The Difference in Content
Science and Mystical Metaphysics
Complementarity
Reconciling Mysticism and Science
9 Mysticism and Morality
The Basic Question of Compatibility
Are Mystics Necessarily Moral?
Mystical Selflessness and the Presuppositions of Morality
Emotions, Values, and Beliefs
“You Are That”
A Metaphysics of Wholeness and Morality
Factual Beliefs, Values, and Mystical Experiences
“Beyond Good and Evil”
Will Any Actions Do?
Mystical Decision-Making
Mystical Selflessness and Morality
Epilogue: The Demise of Mysticism Today
The Antimystical Climate Today
Accepting Mysticism Today
A Mystical Revolution?
A Thirst for Transcendence
Notes
References and Further Reading
Index
Preface
The greatest blessings come to us through madness, when it is sent as a gift of the gods. Heaven-sent madness is superior to man-made sanity.
— Plato
There are forces pulling and pushing against the study of mysticism today. On the one hand, the rise of spirituality has drawn attention to mysticism, and empirical research has suggested that mystical experiences may be much more common than is generally accepted (Hardy 1983; Hood 2006). Mystical experiences that occur either through cultivation or spontaneously are often considered by the experiencers as the defining moments of their lives. There also has been a recent surge of scientific interest in meditators and in the neural and pharmacological bases and causes of mystical experiences. On the other hand, there have been recent sex and money scandals involving “enlightened” Zen and Hindu teachers, and there is the general academic suspicion that mysticism is only a matter of subjectivity, deliberate obscurantism, and irrationality.
In Anglo-American philosophy, mysticism has remained a constant if minor topic within philosophy of religion. Not all questions in philosophy of mysticism are pertinent to more general philosophy, but many are important to philosophy of religion and to philosophy more generally. What is unique about mysticism is the purported contribution of exotic experiences to mystical claims. Are these experiences “objective” in the sense of revealing something about reality outside of the “subjective” individual mind? Do mystical experiences reveal truths about the universe that are not obtainable through science or reasoning about what other experiences reveal to us? Do they reinforce scientific truths? Or do they conflict with scientific truths? Or are they noncognitive and only a matter of emotion? How is it possible to claim that a fundamental reality is experienced when there is allegedly no experiencing subject or object experienced? Why do mystics have trouble expressing what is allegedly experienced in these experiences and not in ordinary cognitive experiences? Are mystics blatantly irrational, speaking what turns out to be only gibberish? Is morality ultimately grounded in mystical experiences, or are mystics necessarily selfish and thus not moral at all? With such questions as these, mysticism introduces issues not found in considering nonmystical experiences and general religious ways of life by themselves.
A current comprehensive treatment of the basic problems in this field is long overdue. No major comprehensive book on philosophy of mysticism has been published since Walter Stace’s Mysticism and Philosophy in 1960. The closest is the important collection of essays published by William Wainwright in 1981. Since then, a number of developments and new issues have arisen—in particular, those raised by postmodernism and scientific research.
Postmodernist Concerns
One new issue is the postmodern questioning of the very term “mysticism” as a useful or even valid category. The term is not common to all cultures but was invented only in the modern era in the West. This has led postmodernists to question whether the term can be used to classify phenomena from any other culture or era. (Wilfred Cantwell Smith spent a generation trying to banish the term “religion” from academic discourse on similar grounds. And a generation before that, Gilbert Ryle asserted the same of “science”: “There is no such animal as ‘Science’ ”—i.e., there is no “science” in the abstract but only “scores of sciences” [1954: 71].) However, although the terms “mysticism” and “mystics” are relatively new Western inventions, it does not follow that no phenomena that existed earlier in the West or in other cultures can be labeled “mystical.” All claims are made from particular perspectives that are set up by culturally-dependent ideas and conceptualizations, but this does not mean that they cannot capture something significant about reality, any more than the fact that scientific claims are made from points of views dictated by particular scientific interests and specific theories means that scientific claims must be groundless. This is true for any term: the invention of a concept does not invent the phenomena in the world that the concept covers. The natural historian Richard Owen invented the term “dinosaur” in the 1830s to classify certain fossils he was studying. However, to make the startling claim “Dinosaurs did not exist before 1830” would at best only be a confusing way of stating the obvious fact that classifying fossils with this concept was not possible before the concept was devised if dinosaurs existed, they existed much earlier, and their existence did not depend on our concepts in any fashion. (Claiming “Dinosaurs did not exist before 1830” may sound silly, but a postmodernist has made the claim that scientists invented quarks. And postmodernists do regularly claim that there was no religion or Buddhism or Hinduism before modern times.)
The same applies to our concepts about human phenomena such as mysticism. Even if there are no equivalents of “m