Mysticism Examined: Philosophical Inquiries Into Mysticism

Mysticism presents a challenge to anyone who is interested in fundamental questions about the nature of reality, knowledge, and how we should live. In this book Richard Jones examines questions posed by mysticism. He clarifies the nature of the claims advanced by Western and Asian mystics, and explores the beliefs and values of classical mystical ways of life for their interconnections and reasonableness. Jones discusses whether all mystical experiences and all mystical claims of knowledge are similar, and examines the relation of concepts and experiences in mystics' claims. Also presented are standards for evaluating competing mystical claims, and mystics' problems with language. Whether mystics' arguments are rational is investigated along with the relation of moral and non-moral values and the role of beliefs and values in enlightened mystics' ways of life. Mysticism's relation to the enterprises of science, theology, psychology and ethics is also examined. In this collection of revised published articles, various topics related to the philosophy of mysticism are examined: experience and conceptualization in mystical knowledge, knowledge and unknowing in the Isa Upanishad, rationality and mysticism, the nature of the Buddhist Nagarjuna's arguments, mystical uses of language, a critique of Joseph Needham's writings on Taoism, the religious irrelevance of the Ontological Argument, a critique of Carl Jung's writings on Asian religious traditions, mysticism and morality, Theravada Buddhism and morality.