The Epistemology of Religious Experience.

Abstract

Introduction: is our task impossible or impolite? Part I. The Experimental Data: 1. Religious experience, 'East' and 'West' Some basic epistemological concepts Part II. The Challenge from Ineffability: 3. The outlines of ineffability ineffability relative to particular languages 5. Reasons in ineffability's favour Part III. The Social Science Challenge: 6. Nonepistemic explanation of belief 7. Non-religious explanation of religious belief Part IV. The Religious Challenge: 8. Self-authentication and verification 9. Religious practices and experimential confirmation Part V. The Argument from Religious Experience: 10. The argument in twentieth-century philosophy 11. The principle of experimential evidence 12. The argument triumphant Part VI. Enlightenment and Conceptual Experience: 13. Are enlightenment experiences evidence for religious beliefs? 14. Conceptual experience and religious belief.