PHILOSOPHY AT A CROSSROADS
Angelaki March 4, 2025 DOI: 10.1080/0969725x.2025.2485587 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that twentieth-century philosophers' encounters with canonical Western mystical texts, understood as a mise-en-scène of personal and intellectual crisis, generated a duplicate crisis or countermovement within the philosophical tradition, with strong and perhaps unexpected consequences for its written modes of discourse. |
Abstract
Abstract The history of philosophy is scored with crossroads, from the anecdotic to the foundational. Understanding the crossroads as a mise-en-scène of personal and intellectual crisis, this article scans the encounters of some of the most significant figures in twentieth-century philosophy with the canonical texts of Western mysticism. In such encounters, it is argued, the intimate testimony of spiritual crisis produces a duplicate crisis or countermovement inside the philosophical tradition, with strong, perhaps unexpected, consequences for its written modes of discourse.