Kant on the Epistemology of Indirect Mystical Experience
While numerous commentators have discussed Kants views on mysticism in general, very few of them have examined Kants specific views on different types of mystical experience. I suggest that Kants views on direct mystical experience (DME) differ substantially from his views on indirect mystical ex...
| Published in: | Sophia |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer Netherlands
[2017]
|
| In: |
Sophia
|
| IxTheo Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism CB Christian life; spirituality TJ Modern history |
| Further subjects: | B
philosophy of religion
B Epistemology B Mysticism B Swedenborg B Mystical Experience B Kant |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | While numerous commentators have discussed Kants views on mysticism in general, very few of them have examined Kants specific views on different types of mystical experience. I suggest that Kants views on direct mystical experience (DME) differ substantially from his views on indirect mystical experience (IME). In this paper, I focus on Kants complex views on IME in both his pre-critical and critical writings and lectures. In the first section, I examine Kants early work, Dreams of a Spirit-Seer (1766), where he defends the possibility that the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborgs alleged visions of the spirit-world are veridical cases of IME. In the second section, I discuss Kants views on IME during his critical period. I first argue that the epistemology of Kants Critique of Pure Reason (1781) accommodates the possibility of IME. I then examine Kants views on Swedenborgian visions in his lectures from the 1770s to the 1790s and argue that his critical views on Swedenborg are largely continuous with his pre-critical views in Dreams. Finally, I examine passages in Kants late works, Religion within the Bounds of Reason Alone (1793) and The Conflict of the Faculties (1798), where he discusses three non-Swedenborgian types of IME. In the final section, I explore briefly how Kants views on IME relate to contemporary debates among analytic philosophers of religion regarding the nature and possibility of mystical experience. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1873-930X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sophia
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s11841-016-0528-y |