Abstract

Schleiermacher is the founder of a trend whose members regard mystical experience as a kind of feelings and affections. Of course, he believes that this kind of experience is not devoid of any epistemic aspect and, differentiating between two kinds of feelings and two kinds of awareness, holds that mystical experience is a kind of feelings which has a direct awareness in which the distance between perceiver and perceived is removed. He uses the concept of "absolute dependency" to explain this particular feeling and awareness which form the nature of mystical experience and knowledge. Absolute dependency is a one-directional relationship in which man has no freedom and choice by himself. This feeling includes and explains the concept of God, world and man. Man and world are the absolute dependent and God as the other side of this dependency. Several criticisms have directed against this view, including doubt about the possibility of realization of non-conceptual awareness, doubt about the possibility of realization of unintentional awareness, ambiguity in the existence and nature of affections containing knowledge, etc. which are discussed at the end of present paper.