The Science of Consciousness and Mystical Experience: An Argument for Radical Empiricism
Jason N. Blum
March 1, 2014 DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lft073 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Qualitative |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mystical experience |
| Key points | Argues that radical empiricism, which emphasizes emotion as fundamental and allows for nonlinguistic experience, provides a more accurate explanation for mystical experience than the dominant neo-Kantian model. |
Abstract
Recent evidence in neuroscience and psychology militates against the dominant theory of consciousness that has typically been used in explaining mystical experience—a neo-Kantian model that emphasizes concepts and language as the necessary foundations of consciousness. Findings in neuroanatomy, psychology, and evolutionary biology indi-cate that emotion is more fundamental to consciousness than previously suspected, and that language does not play as foundational a role in human consciousness as has been widely believed. These developments suggest that radical empiricism—in acknowledging the possibility of nonlinguistic experience and in construing emotional/qualitative aspects of experience as nonreducible to discursive foundations—represents a more accurate understanding of the nature of human consciousness, and therefore offers a better explanation for the character of mystical experience. This perspective also has implications for the possibility of cross-cultural similarities in mystical experience and the question of the veridicality of mystical experience. SINCE THE LATE 1970S, the majority of scholars studying mystical experience have adopted a neo-Kantian epistemology which assumes that consciousness is fundamentally linguistic and conceptual in nature, and
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mystical experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Psychedelic Mystical Experience in the Human Encounter with Death | 1969 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Vectorial Cerebral Hemisphericity as Differential Sources for the Sensed Presence, Mystical Experiences and Religious Conversions | 1993 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The epistemic innocence of psychedelic states. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mystical Experience and Religious Doctrine | 1982 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- Perbandingan Konstruktivis dan Parennialis dalam Menjelaskan Pengalaman Mistik Refleksi Jurnal Filsafat dan Pemikiran Islam February 27, 2023
- A New Day for Perennialism: the Case for a Perennial Phenomenology, or ‘Soft’ Perennialism Sophia October 19, 2023
- Methodology and Mysticism: For an Integral Study of Religion Religions February 24, 2022
Cites 6
- Mysticism and the Interpretation of Sacred Scripture Oxford University Press eBooks December 7, 2000
- Rudolf Otto and the Limits of Religious Description Religious Studies June 1, 1994
- William James on a phenomenological psychology of immediate experience: the true foundation for a science of consciousness? History of the Human Sciences 2010
- The Construction of Mystical Experience Faith and Philosophy 1988
- At the interface of the affective, behavioral, and cognitive neurosciences: decoding the emotional feelings of the brain. Brain and Cognition June 2003
and 1 more in the library