A metaphysics of spiritual experience
Religious Studies: An International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion February 10, 2023 F. Ellis
A discussion of the metaphysics of spiritual experience requires clarity about the nature of metaphysics, taking as a starting point the 'transcendent metaphysics' described and supposedly eliminated by A. J. Ayer. Most analytic philosophers agree with Ayer and Kant that transcendent metaphysics is deeply problematic and associate it with platonism, theism, and religious thinking. Assuming spiritual experience takes us into forbidden religious territory, a metaphysics of spiritual experience involves similarly problematic transcendent metaphysics. Ayer's conception of transcendent reality is itself deeply problematic and helps motivate atheistic spirituality by ruling out an empirically grounded religious alternative. The author challenges this framework, sets out an alternative with Arthur Schopenhauer, and spells out implications for a metaphysics of spiritual experience.