Ninian Smart and the Dialectic of Religious Beliefs and Experiences
Masoud Sadeghi, Fatemah Qalkhanbaz
پژوهشنامه فلسفه دین December 1, 2021 DOI: 10.30497/prr.2013.1478 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Religious experience Interpretation Essentialism Constructivism Ninian smart |
| Key points | Argues that Smart's position on religious experience is a minimal constructivism, where cultural-religious contexts influence but do not fully determine experience, placing him between essentialism and maximal constructivism. |
Abstract
In recent philosophical analysis of religious experience and discussion on the relation of beliefs and experiences, Ninian Smart is said to be, amongst such other philosophers as Katz and Hick, a maximal constructivist. Distinguishing theistic and non-theistic contexts of experiences, Smart suggests a two poles theory of religious experience, and draws attention to different levels of interpretation. He holds that cultural-religious contexts, including religious beliefs, influence religious experience, but it is not led to fully determine experience. Accordingly, he takes a position between essentialism and maximal constructivism. This position could call minimal constructivism.