The Primacy of Consciousness in Philosophy: A Role for Contemplative Practices in Education
December 1, 2011 DOI: 10.15754/jkpe.2011.33.4.007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Education |
| Key points | Argues that philosophy of education should extend beyond rational discursive practices to include non-discursive practices, based on the primacy of states of consciousness thesis, and proposes that incorporating Zen nondualism and nondual experience would support cultivating humanity with compassion, wisdom, generosity, and courage. |
Abstract
In this paper, we make the case that the purview of philosophizing in philosophy of education needs to extend beyond the rational discursive practices, such as, notably conceptual analysis and argumentation, and to include non-discursive practices that would yield epistemic and ontic fonns of knowledge that are of educational value to us. We base this case-making on the primacy of states of consciousness thesis that shows the contingency relationship between knowledge production and states of consciousness. Using Zen philosophy of nondualism and practice of nondual experience as a choice example, we argue that inclusion of such non-rational and non-discursive philosophies in the purview of philosophy of education would allow us to effectively participate in an important educational project of cultivating hWTianity imbued with extraordinary degrees of compassion, wisdom, generosity, and courage, so needed for today's troubled world.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |