Consciousness, spirituality, and ontological depth
Filozofija i Društvo 2025 DOI: 10.2298/fid2504831s (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that spirituality is essentially an orientation toward a cosmic consciousness and that this perspective supports the idea of graded ontological depth in reality. |
Abstract
This paper aims to achieve two complementary goals. The first goal is to outline and motivate a general account of spirituality along the lines of the so-called perennial philosophy. From this perspective, the essence of spirituality lies in establishing an orientation towards, and an inspirational connection to, a cosmic consciousness where the latter serves both as the ground of all infra-cosmic subjects and as an ultimate source of meaning and value. The second goal is to demonstrate that one of the advantages of this outlook on the nature of spirituality consists of the fact that it opens up the door for a potential rehabilitation of an important yet neglected idea, namely, the idea that concrete reality admits various grades of intension, or ontological depth.