Paradoxes of Pure Experience: From the Radical to the Transcendental with James and Deleuze

This paper investigates the relationship between James’ radical empiricism and Deleuze’s study of the genesis of sense without a transcendental subject as necessary condition. It shows that James’ concept of pure experience changes the form of relation between mind and world. Considering how to conceptualize experience without a fixed metaphysical or transcendental subject destabilizes ontological identity, leads to a founding conceptual divergence from traditional phenomenology, and motivates Deleuze’s efforts towards transcendental empiricism. The paper reads Deleuze’s work on the genesis of sense in this context, arguing that one important result is an ontological pluralism. Such pluralism is crucial in considering how meaning can be made between and across differences and is in keeping with radical empiricism’s openness to life’s complexity.

LINGUOPHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OF CONTEXTUALITY IN THE STUDY OF OCCASIONAL SPEECH UNITS (ON THE MATERIAL OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

Language is commonly believed to be one of the dominant components in the philosophical ideology. The given article is aimed at revealing the linguistic and philosophical foundations of “contextuality” and “context” under the study of occasional speech units on the material of the English language from the standpoint of interdisciplinary holism. Interdisciplinarity is caused by the lack of a unified methodology for the study of contextual synonyms as global phenomena in newspaper and artistic discourses in the contemporary English.Lexical units on the basis of modern newspaper and artistic discourses are studied. “Contextuality” with a reference to modern explorations of linguistic philosophy is explicated. The study of contextual synonyms characterizes the role of linguistic and philosophical knowledge and outlines the prospects for further research in terms of linguosynergetics. The methodological basis contains a combination of general (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction) and linguistic (componential, logical) methods. The epistemological interpretation of “contextualism” explains the fact that the context is based on pure experience and a priori structures. From the standpoint of anthropology, “contextuality” is composed of three components, which include a cognitive, behavioral and emotional components.There has been made an attempt to study contextual synonyms within the framework of Austin’s language pragmatism. It has been determined that the main prerequisites for contextuality are ready-made scripts and templates of a certain language community. The proposed article confines that the contextual synonyms are formed by the author’s intentions in the artistic style, while the situational synonyms on the material of the English periodicals are formed on the basis of collective beliefs or background knowledge. The main hypotheses of the British and American schools to understanding the concept of “context” are highlighted. Both schools singled the “cultural component” out. It has been substantiated that contextual synonyms activate the pragmatic effect in terms of a language game. The analyzed theoretical sources indicate that the rejection of structural logocentrism in favor of dynamism and linguistic ambiguity becomes a prerequisite for the study of speech phenomena in the realm of linguosynergetics.Key words: contextuality, context, cultural component, language game, pragmatism. Заведено вважати, що мова є одним із домінантних компонентів у філософській ідеології. Реферована стаття покликана розкрити лінгвофілософські підвалини поняття «контекстуальність» і «контекст» у процесі дослідження оказіональних мовленнєвих одиниць на матеріалі англійської мови в умовах інтер-дисциплінарного холізму. Міждисциплінарність викликається відсутністю уніфікованої методики до дослідження контекстуальних синонімів як глобальних феноменів на матеріалі англійської мови. У розвідці досліджуються лексичні одиниці на матеріалі сучасного газетного й художнього дискурсів. Експлікується термін «контекстуальність» з опертям на сучасні розвідки лінгвофілософії. Під час вивчення контекстуальних синонімів характеризується роль лінгвофілософського знання та окреслюються перспективи подальшого дослідження в розрізі лінгвосинергетики. Методологічне підґрунтя містить поєднання загальних (аналіз, синтез, індукція, дедукції) та лінгвістичних (компонентний, логічний) методів. Епіс-темологічне трактування «контекстуалізм» зводиться до того, що контекст ґрунтується на чистому досвіді й апріорних структурах. З позиції антропології «контекстуальності» сприяють когнітивний, поведінковий (біхевіористичний) та емоційний компоненти. У межах Остінського мовного прагматизму про-понується вивчення мовленнєвих феноменів – контекстуальних синонімів. Визначено, що основними пере-думовами контекстуальності є готові сценарії та шаблони певної мовної спільноти. У запропонованій статті з’ясовано, що контекстуальні синоніми, утворені авторськими інтенціями, притаманні радше художньому стилю, в той час, як ситуативні синоніми на матеріалі англомовної періодики утворюються на колективних уявленнях чи фонових лінгвокультурних знаннях. Викладено основні гіпотези британської та американської школи щодо розуміння поняття «контекст». Обидві школи орієнтувались на «культурний компонент». Обґрунтовано той факт, що контекстуальні синоніми є активізаторами прагматичного ефекту у вигляді мовної гри. Проаналізовані теоретичні джерела свідчать про те, що відмова від структурного логоцентризму на користь динамічності й мовної неоднозначності стає передумовою вивчення мовленнєвих феноменів у руслі лінгвосинергетики.Ключові слова: контекстуальність, контекст, культурний компонент, прагматизм, мовна гра.

The Phenomenology of “Pure” Consciousness as Reported by an Experienced Meditator of the Tibetan Buddhist Karma Kagyu Tradition. Analysis of Interview Content Concerning Different Meditative States

A philosopher and a cognitive neuroscientist conversed with Buddhist lama Tilmann Lhündrup Borghardt (TLB) about the unresolved phenomenological concerns and logical questions surrounding “pure” consciousness or minimal phenomenal experience (MPE), a quasi-contentless, non-dual state whose phenomenology of “emptiness” is often described in terms of the phenomenal quality of luminosity that experienced meditators have reported occurs in deep meditative states. Here, we present the excerpts of the conversation that relate to the question of how it is possible to first have and later retrieve such non-dual states of selflessness and timelessness that are unrelated to sensory input. According to TLB, a “pure” experience of consciousness contains the phenomenal quality of luminous clarity, which is experienced solely in the transitional phase from the non-dual state of absolute emptiness to the state of minimal emptiness, when the person gradually returns to duality. However, this quality of luminous clarity can also be experienced in non-minimal states as in the experiential mode of being awakened. TLB describes this transition as a kind of ephemeral afterglow in the form of a maximally abstract phenomenal quality, i.e., luminosity, which justifies the conclusion of having been in a state of “pure” consciousness.

The Problem of Experience in E. Voegelin’s Philosophy

The paper deals with the problem of E. Voegelin’s notion of experience: the positive meaning of this concept is not specified in any of the author’s works. Based on W. James’s ‘‘Essay on Radical Empiricism” and Voegelin’s late works, it is shown that Voegelin’s theory of consciousness is rooted in James‘s concept of “pure experience”, which essentially sought to close the epistemological chasm between subject and object, phenomena and noumena. According to this notion, mental and physical, subjective and objective realities are merely derivative aspects of a certain primordial pure experience, which is more elementary and fundamental than the two former aspects of reality. Finally, the article exposes other implications of this connection with James’s philosophy for E. Voegelin’s theory of consciousness.

The Problem of Experience in E. Voegelin’s Philosophy

The paper deals with the problem of E. Voegelin’s notion of experience: the positive meaning of this concept is not specified in any of the author’s works. Based on W. James’s ‘‘Essay on Radical Empiricism” and Voegelin’s late works, it is shown that Voegelin’s theory of consciousness is rooted in James‘s concept of “pure experience”, which essentially sought to close the epistemological chasm between subject and object, phenomena and noumena. According to this notion, mental and physical, subjective and objective realities are merely derivative aspects of a certain primordial pure experience, which is more elementary and fundamental than the two former aspects of reality. Finally, the article exposes other implications of this connection with James’s philosophy for E. Voegelin’s theory of consciousness.

Krytyka czystego rozumu jako krytyka czystego doświadczenia. Kant a współczesne spory wokół treści percepcji

Critique of Pure Reason as a critique of pure experience. Kant and contemporary disputes over the content of perception:­ The ­article ­is ­an­ attempt ­at critically ­analysing­ the ­conceptual­ content ­of ­perception ­in ­Immanuel ­Kant’s transcendental philosophy.­ The ­author ­claims­ that ­unity ­as ­the ­feature ­of ­forms ­of ­intuition ­is ­closely ­related­ to unity ­as ­the ­category ­of ­the­ intellect ­and ­as ­such ­with ­the ­uniting ­synthesis ­of ­apperception. The­ author­ also claims­ that defending ­the ­non­‐conceptual ­content ­may ­result ­in ­losing ­the essence ­of ­Kant’s ­identification­ of empirical ­realism ­with ­transcendental­ idealism.­ Kant’s conceptualism ­leads ­to ­the ­thesis ­that­ non‐­conceptual content­ is ­only ­abstracted ­from the context ­of ­perception ­and ­may ­be­ treated­ as ­an ­object ­of ­thinking, ­but ­not as ­an ­object ­of perceiving.

Dōgen on Language and Experience

Understanding Zen views on language and experience from a philosophical hermeneutical point of view means conceiving such an understanding as a merging of horizons. We have to explicate both the modern Western secular horizon and the medieval Japanese Zen horizon. This article first describes how Charles Taylor’s notion of the immanent frame has shaped Western modernist understanding of Zen language and experience in the twentieth century. Zen language was approached as an instrumental tool, and Zen enlightenment experience was imagined as an ineffable “pure experience.” More recent postmodernist approaches to Zen language and experience have stressed the interrelatedness of language and experience, and the importance of embodied approaches to experience. Such new understandings of language and experience offer not only new perspectives on Dōgen’s “Zen within words and letters” and his embodied approach to enlightened experience, but also an expanded view on what it means to understand Dōgen.

Ecclesial Belonging in a World of Pure Experience: William James, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Religious Rationality in Crisis

The global COVID-19 pandemic has spotlighted several instances of churches violating state issued and scientifically recommended guidelines designed to keep populations healthy and to prevent the further spread of the disease. While these instances are minority responses to these orders, they nonetheless raise questions about the rationality of ecclesial belonging in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, I draw on the work of William James and W. E. B. Du Bois to articulate a conception of ecclesial belonging as a social epistemological process engaging a complex, fluid multiplicity of knowers of various scales. I argue that, in this view, ecclesial rationality involves the construction of a concatenation of internal and external practices individual believers and groups can traverse so long as they consistently satisfy a plurality of desiderata. I suggest that what is irrational about religious-based defiance of COVID-19 guidelines is the church-sanctioned severance of internal from external practices. I suggest that this behavior is supported by a failure to grasp the demands of ecclesial rationality rather than embrace them, and that this conception of rationality may have been eroded by the value-neutral skepticism of secular rationality.

A Non-Constructivist Reading of Kant’s Philosophy

The article reveals the consequent process of the Кantian empirical cognition. Separating a priori and empirical knowledge, the philosopher gives grounds for a more detailed analysis of empirical and pure experience. Since Kant denies empiricism, the question arises what is an experience for him? I think that spatio-temporal relations that play a leading role in his theory of experience can be analyzed on the transcendental level as the concept of magnitude, while the sensations of space and time, in turn, can be pretty good described from the perspective of a physiology of empirical experience. Kant’s phenomenological approach allows for a description of the mechanism of perception, beginning with the pure intuitions, which underlie mathematics, and ending with empirical sensations. Thus, I claim that it is possible to reconstruct a certain scale of perceptions: there are intuitions of space and time on the transcendental level, which gives the possibility of applying mathematics to nature. This level becomes a starting point for the subsequent stage of presentation of mathematical time and geometric space. The process results in empirical judgments which don’t have an apodictic character any more.