This book is the sequel to Robert Forman's well-received collection, The Problem of Pure Consciousness (Oxford, 1990). The essays in the earlier volume argued that some mystical experiences do not seem to be formed or shaped by the language system-a thesis that stands in sharp contradistinction to deconstruction in general and to the constructivist school of mysticism in particular, which holds...
Professor Janz (SR, 24, 1 [1995]: 77) proposes an explanation of mystical experience based on an analogy with the hermeneutical process of reading a book. While this model has its advantages, it represents an attempt to analyze non-intentional mysticism on the basis of intentional experiences. Such mysticism, an experience of our own consciousness, is very different from thinking and sensing;...
This is a paperback reprint of a collection of contributed essays about mysticism and philosophy. It challenges the widely accepted interpretaion of mystical experience that received its fullest expression in two volumes edited by Steven T. Katz: Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis (OUP 1987) and Mysticism and Religious Traditions (OUP 1983). According to Katz and his colleagues, mystical...
Capitalizing on the constructivist approach developed by philosophers and psychologists, Steven Katz argues that mystical experience is in part constructed, shaped and colored by the concepts and beliefs which the mystic brings to it.Merits and problems of this constructivist account of mysticism are discussed.The approach is seen to be ill-suited to explain the novelties and surprises for...