Abstract:

An anti-representationalist account of the relationship between experience and belief is preferable to that of empiricism because empiricism appears incapable of sustaining its characteristic theses without degenerating into an unpalatable idealism. Anti-representationalism directs the scholar's attention to the language and inferences presupposed by experience, mystical or otherwise. Consideration of a common mystical movement of thought bears out the need for a belated "linguistic turn" in the study of mysticism.

Keywords: ANTI-REPRESENTATIONALISM; COGNITION; EMPIRICISM; EXPERIENCE; MYSTICISM; PARADOX

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1163/157006808X371798

Affiliations: 1: Department of Religious Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912