The problem of subject within the dimension of philosophical mysticism
V. Stepanov, Iryna Luchynska
March 31, 2015 DOI: 10.21847/1728-9343.2015.1(133).40170 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Key points | Argues that mystical experience cannot be classified as subjective or objective and therefore requires a new category, "transsubjective." The author contends that speculative mysticism's apophatic structure parallels deconstruction and negative dialectics, allowing it to serve as a philosophical locus of religion, and that mystical intuitions about subjectivity without Ego anticipate phenomenology, fundamental ontology, and deconstruction. |
Abstract
The article explores the possibility of reconstruction of the concept of subject out of the discourse of mystical experience. The novel forms of philosophical theories are proved to be homogeneous to the mystical elements of the general structure of religious systems. Postmodernist trends of contemporary philosophy promoting weak phenomena of human world provide the epistemological background for new vision of religious mysticism, which was always dominated by collective forms of religiosity and disqualified as too individualistic and esoteric. Apophatic morphology of speculative mysticism resembles the conceptual apparatus of deconstruction or negative dialectics. Therefore it can be effectively reinterpreted as philosophical locus of religion, which is congenial to absorb the novel philosophical forms and translate them into religious discourse. The mystical experience cannot be subjective, because "subjective" implies either privateness or disorder. We cannot say that mystical experiences are either ordered or disordered, because they have no parts to be compared and contrasted with one another or with the order of the natural world - only sequences of experiences can be ordered or disordered. But mystical experiences must be something, so if they are neither objective nor subjective, we have to create a new category - transsubjective - for them. Mystical intuitions about subjectivity without Ego are considered as preceding attempts of phenomenology, fundamental ontology and deconstruction to conceptualize the dynamics of becoming of subjectivity out of certain primordial form of subjectity. The necessity of new synthesis of philosophical and religious conceptions of subjectivity appears from the harsh controversies of contemporary world, which is losing the common order of meaning, very likely to face the demise of some common system of laws and rights. To reconstruct a mystical subjectivity by the means of today's philosophy is to hope for reconciliation of scientific ratio with religious fidelity in terms more appropriate to the reality we are living in.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |