The Perennial Philosophy is defined by its author as "The metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds." With great wit and stunning intellect, Aldous Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains them in terms that are personally meaningful.

Each well-known proposed solution to the mind-body problem encounters an impasse. These take the form of an explanatory gap, such as the one between mental and physical, or between micro-subjects and macro-subject. The dialectical pressure to bridge these gaps is generating positions in which consciousness is becoming increasingly foundational. The most recent of these, cosmopsychism, typically casts the entire cosmos as a perspectival subject whose mind grounds those of more limited subjects like ourselves. I review the dialectic from materialism and (...) dualism through to panpsychism, suggesting that explanatory gaps in the latter stem from assuming foundational consciousness to be perspectival. Its renunciation may yield the notion of an aperspectival, universal, “non-dual” consciousness that grounds all manifestation and is unstructured by subject, object or any differentia. Not only is such consciousness suggestive of a natural successor to cosmopsychism, but it has also been reported to be the direct experience of mystics who claim to have transcended the individual perspective. Their purported insight — that our aperspectival conscious nature is identical to the ground of all being — has been termed “the Perennial Philosophy”. Believing this Perennial Philosophy to offer the most promising way forward in the mind-body problem, I construct from it the foundations of a metaphysical system that I call “Perennial Idealism”. This attempts to account for manifestation in terms of dispositional, imagery-bound subjects. I then address an age-old “Parmenidean” conundrum that I refer to as “the problem of the one and the many”: How can an undifferentiated substratum ground differentia without the ground itself differentiating? The proposed solution takes its cue from mystico-philosophical writings in the Advaita Vedānta tradition, known as the ajāta doctrine. (shrink)

Contemporary philosophers often purport to ‘borrow’ or ‘refute’ claims made by past philosophers. In doing so they contravene a contextualist methodological prohibition once defended by Quentin Skinner in his seminal paper “Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas”. Skinner's methodology has been much debated by theorists of textual meaning and interpretation, and yet the precise nature of the logical path from his premises to his prohibitory conclusion remains elusive. This paper seeks to refute two of the most promising variants (...) of an argument for his methodological prohibition on ‘refutation’, one of which draws on his appeal to Wittgenstein's conception of ‘meaning as use’, and the other of which draws on his appeal to speech act theory. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to expose a basic flaw at the root of perennialism as a method for studying mysticism—its distinction between ‘exoteric’ and ‘esoteric’ components of mysticism and religion. Rather than being distinct, the specific ‘exoteric’ doctrines of a given mystic’s tradition penetrate the mystics’ knowledge-claims. Thus, the ‘esoteric’ dimension in a mystical tradition is permeated by that mystical tradition’s ‘exoteric’ doctrines, not by the transcultural and ahistorical perennial spine that perennialists postulate. Contrary to what the (...) perennialists suggest, there is no one underlying esoteric set of beliefs embedded in all traditional religions that all mystics share. Rather, in the different religious traditions of the world, there are genuinely different mysticisms with different beliefs, practices, values, and goals. Thus, the perennialist approach distorts the history of mysticism. It is better seen as a theology of religions than as an alleged discernment of timeless truths presented throughout the history of mysticism. (shrink)

... Dans le De principiis d'Origene, le chapitre 9 du tome II concerne le debut de la creation du monde, c'est-a-dire, selon la perspective de 1'auteur, ...

In order to better cope with the pressures and stresses of the current day, modern psychology is anxiously seeking to find new therapies to address the increasing disorders within the human psyche. In the process new fields of research, such as humanistic and transpersonal psychology, curiously appear to borrow more and more from the wisdom of the ages. This volume, containing eighteen articles by noteworthy expositors of the perennial philosophy such as Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Frithjof Schuon, presents (...) the spiritual psychology of the wisdom traditions as a much-needed antidote to the current impasse in modern psychology. (shrink)

The phrase philosophia perennis is said to have been first used by Leibniz. It has been adopted and freely employed by the Catholic Neo-Thomists, for whom it means a development of the Aristotelianism, modified by strong Neoplatonic elements, which Arabian scholars transmitted to the first Renaissance in the West. It claims also to be a return to the early Christian philosophy of religion, a fusion of Hellenistic and Jewish thought, the latter itself a syncretistic religion with many Persian and other (...) borrowings. The controversy, directed against various modern philosophies, has been conducted with great ability by such writers as Gilson, Maritain, Sheen, Watkin, Dawson and D'Arcy, whose books would perhaps have received more attention from independent thinkers, but for the suspicion which surrounds apparent attempts to revive the methods and inhibitions of the medieval schoolmen. There has been a parallel movement in the Orthodox Eastern Church, represented in Russian by Frank, Bardyaeff, Solovioff and Lossky. These writers are more Platonic and more fearlessly mystical than the Thomists. Origen in the East has more weight than Augustine. (shrink)

In den einzelnen Beiträgen der Erich Heintel gewidmeten Festschrift spiegeln sich dessen Auffassung von Philosophie als «perenner» Prinzipienwissenschaft europäischer Tradition. Sie reflektiert die Voraussetzungsproblematik alles Erkennens von der empirischen Einzelforschung bis hin zur Theologie sowie Sinn und Grenze ihres eigenen Vorgehens. Ontologisches Voraussetzungswissen der antik-mittelalterlichen Form- bzw. Substanzmetaphysik und neuzeitlichen Transzendentalphilosophie müssen in ihrem Sinnanspruch ebenso unterschieden wie auch miteinander «versöhnt» werden, um den Menschen in seiner Einheit als «daseiende Transzendentalität» erfassen zu können. Die Frage nach dem Begriff des Menschen (...) ist inneres Organisationsprinzip der vereinigten Studien, die sich in systematischer Differenzierung mit Fragen der theoretischen, praktischen und poietischen Philosophie, zuletzt aber auch mit theologischen Problemstellungen beschäftigen. (shrink)

Joining the university context in the middle of the 19th century, Philology served as a comprehensive basis for what nowadays is meant by literary and linguistic studies. Depending on the specialization tendency that would settle down in the academic context, each of these areas followed separate or even divergent paths, losing, to a great extent, the contact with its initial basis. Despite this state of affairs, Philology has displayed a strong capacity of resistance, maintaining its traditional dimension active or going (...) through metamorphoses that resulted from the incorporation of new technologies, as well as from the epistemological adjustment that enabled it to overcome its first positivist stages. Trying to find a new place inside the general framework of Social Sciences and Humanities, literary studies need to recover its order and credibility, two factors that the new face of Philology can inspire. The present study aims at reconstructing the most recent trajectory undergone by this field of research and education, by identifying a space of reconnection that already seems to be adequate and beneficial. (shrink)

Meine bisherigen Veroffentlichungen entsprechen nach Reihenfolge und Inhalt meiner eigenen Entwicklung. Nun, da dieser ProzeB voraussichtlich abgeschlossen ist, mOchte ich in einer Art philosophischen Testamentes zusam menfassen, was mir am wichtigsten scheint. Die friiheren Schriften sollen dadurch nicht ersetzt werden; vielmehr hoffe ich, daB diese konzentrierte und systematische Darstellung dazu helfen werde, sie besser zu verstehen. Der Titel des Buches konnte demgegeniiber unangemessen, ja anmaBend erscheinen; er ist aber weder das eine noch das andere. Es handelt sich in der Tat (...) urn Philosophia perennis. Diese aber verwirklicht sich nie anders als in einer bestimmten Gestalt; hier erscheint sie im Beispiel meines eigenen Philo sophierens. Was folgt, erhebt also nicht den Anspruch, die Philosophie, sondern nur den, Philosophie zu sein. Durch gelegentliche Hinweise auf andere Gestalten solI einerseits meine Auf fassung verdeutlicht, andererseits ihre Zugehorigkeit zur Einen Philosophie bekundet werden. Urn Vollsdindigkeit geht es dabei nicht, weder was die Wiir digung der zitierten Philosophen oder Richtungen noch gar was ihre Zahl betrifft. Nach beiden Seiten handelt es sich urn eine Auswahl, welme allein unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Erlauterung und Abgrenzung der eigenen Position getroffen ist. 1m iibrigen bin ich mir der Fragwiirdigkeit solcher Konfrontation bewuBt. Sie griindet sich immer auf eine Interpretation, welche von Subjektivi tat nie absolut frei sein wird. Das Gewicht des Bumes liegt denn auch nicht auf der Kundgabe historisch-kritischer Ansicht, sondern auf der systematischen Dar stellung philosophischer Einsicht, und ich bitte den Leser, dies zu beriicksich tigen. (shrink)

Leaving the cave -- Nature's secrets -- The contemplative ascent -- Transcendence -- Above and below -- Contemplative science -- Perennial philosophy in the future.

A Study of Perennial Philosophy and Psychedelic Experience, with a Proposal to Revise W. T. Stace’s Core Characteristics of Mystical Experience ©Ed D’Angelo 2018 -/- Abstract -/- According to the prevailing paradigm in psychedelic research today, when used within an appropriate set and setting, psychedelics can reliably produce an authentic mystical experience. According to the prevailing paradigm, an authentic mystical experience is one that possesses the common or universal characteristics of mystical experience as identified by the philosopher W. T. Stace (...) in his 1960 work Mysticism and Philosophy. Stace’s common characteristics of mystical experience are the basis for the Hood Mysticism Questionnaire, which is the most widely used quantitative measure of mystical experience in experimental studies of psychedelic experience. In this paper, I trace the historical roots of Stace’s common characteristics of mystical experience back to Christian Neoplatonism and apophatic theology, and I trace those, in turn, back to Plato’s concept of the Good and to Aristotle’s concept of God as active intellect. I argue that Stace’s common characteristics of mystical experience are not universal or culturally invariant but are the product of a specifically Christian religious and moral tradition that has its roots in ancient Greek metaphysics. My paper concludes with a revised list of common characteristics of psychedelic experience that is a better candidate for a list of invariant structures of psychedelic experience than Stace’s common characteristics of Christian mystical experience. (shrink)

The text of six lectures in which Karl Jaspers redefines the position of philosophy in the world today, particularly in relation to science and theology, and defines and outlines his own philosophy.

At the start of the 20th century the question of whether life could be explained in purely me- chanical terms was as hotly debated as the mind-body problem is today. Two factions opposed each other: Biological mechanists claimed that the properties characteristic of living organisms could be ex- plained mechanistically, in the way the behavior of a clock can be explained by the properties and the arrangement of its cogs, springs, and weights. Substantial vitalists, on the other hand, maintained that (...) the explanation envisaged by the mechanists was impossible and that one had to postulate a special nonphysical substance in order to explain life. (shrink)

Russell argued that we can’t know what brains are really like behind our perceptions of them, so minds can conceivably reside in brains. Physicalist-leaning Russellians from Feigl to Strawson try to avoid physicalist and dualist issues with this Russellian idea. Strawson also tries to avoid emergentist issues through panpsychism. Yet critics feel that these Russellians don’t really avoid these issues, but just recast them in new forms. For example, dualist issues arguably remain because it’s hard to see how private pains (...) or colors can reside in solid, grainy, publicly observable brains. Emergence issues arguably remain because panpsychism seems equally unclear as emergentism about how minds arise from brains. This paper revises Strawson and Feigl, while building on recent progress in defusing panpsychism’s emergence issues. It tries to intelligibly formulate Russell’s idea so as to avoid the perennial issues in Russellian and non-Russellian theories, without raising new issues of its own. (shrink)

Mark Piper introduces the best-known and perhaps most powerful of all the arguments against the existence of God.

St. Augustine.--Boethius.--Abelard.--St. Thomas of Aquin.--The origins in Greece.--The neo-scholastic revival.

Though popular in the nineteenth century and widespread since, the elements of the hoax form can be traced to the origins of rhetorical theorizing, principally in the strategies of probability and counterprobability developed by the early orators and sophists. This article begins by defining features of the hoax as a textual event and then describes how hoaxes use traditional rhetorical techniques of both probability and improbability to transport viewers from credulity and acceptance to doubt and disbelief, demonstrating technical mastery over (...) rhetorical conventions of the genre to mock their targets and to entertain and instruct their audience. (shrink)

The text of six lectures in which Karl Jaspers redefines the position of philosophy in the world today, particularly in relation to science and theology, and defines and outlines his own philosophy.

The contributions in this volume analyze different moments of intercultural negotiation within the history of Latin literature and look into the dynamic process of appropriation that guarantees its continuity.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and (...) made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

I. Abhandlungen über die geschichte der philosophie.--II. Abhandlungen zur systematischen philosophie.