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The Nature of Religious Experience in the Philosophy of William James

The Nature of Religious Experience in the Philosophy of William James

The Nature of Religious in the of

The Nature of in the Philosophy of William James

By

Dr. Cholbhavat Borirakkucharoen*

Abstract James’s interest in was in personal terms. The meaning and William James (1842-1910) was importance of his religious writings both a and can properly be understood only in the who has attained international light of his that the most fruitful reputation as America’s most original approach to religion is an empirical thinker. He aroused a public interest one. His pragmatic justification for in philosophy in general, and religious belief has often been in particular. James challenged, on both ontological and rejected intellectualizing and moral grounds. Critics argue that theorizing about religion in favor of an James’s accounts of religious empirical approach and his task and its justification are perniciously became that of articulating the way in subjective. Nevertheless, once James’s which experience may justify religious conceptions of religious truth and beliefs. He was a pluralist in love with justification are understood in their variety and with his own religious full measure of depth, this charge can experience. be

* The author has a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Assumption University of Thailand and a Master in Architecture from Chulalongkorn University. He studied in Massy University, New Zealand in its Executive MBA Program. Currently he is the President of the Evana Hotel and Life Resort, also President of the Jeannette World (Thailand) Co. Ltd. He is a former member of the Chon buri Chamber of Commerce

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seen as misplaced. In this article, I psychological manifestation, according explore James’s to (1856-1939). Freud in a way that enables his views to be sees religion as a form of wish- understood and critiqued. fulfillment, and the dogmas of religion are illusions derived from deep and persistent wishes.

Introduction James’s Concept of Religion In order to define the nature of religious experience, we should first James, in The Varieties of establish what religion is and what is Religious Experience, generally experience. The word religion does not considers religion only in its personal stand for any single principle or entity, aspect, believing that this is more and religion has many characters which fundamental than theological: may in turn be equally important. “Churches, when once established, live have various views on at second hand upon tradition; but the ‘religion’, for example, founders of every church owed their (1818-1883), describes religion as an power originally to the fact of their ideological weapon of the ruling class direct personal communion with the which has a function that is harmful. divine. Not only the superhuman John Dewey (1859-1952) finds that founders, the Christ, the Buddha, religion has a valuable function in life. Mohammed, but all the originators of Therefore, any singular abstract religious have been in this case; so conception is misleading. personal religion should still seem the primordial thing, even to those who Instead of seduced into the continue to esteem it incomplete” theorizing fallacy of seeking a (James,1958,p.30). definition as the key to the nature of religion, one should inquire into its The meaning of religion, as one various meanings in human experience. should generally understand it Hence, religion has its external aspects, throughout James’s writings, is , , , described in the Varieties in the ceremonies, and ecclesiastical following practical terms: “Religion, organizations. It is also, in a more therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to personal way, the inner dispositions take it, shall mean for us the feelings, “which form the center of his interest, acts, and of individual men his , his helplessness, and his in their solitude, so far as they incompleteness” (James,1958,p.28). apprehend themselves to stand in Nevertheless, one might argue that relation to whatever they may consider religion is not religion but a the divine. Since the relation may be

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either moral, physical, or , it is functioning of the sense-organs. That I evident that out of religion in the sense see and hear and taste is a in which we take it, , commonplace of all experience, and I , and ecclesiastical may study what I see without effecting organizations may secondarily grow” any discontinuity in my practical or (James, 1958, p.31). scientific world of things. But to believe that what I see is constituted by my seeing of it, is to define a new General Concept of Experience realm, an anomalous , and possibly a new philosophical method. Let us examine the term Such a belief must arise very early in “experience’. Everyone has had connection with illusory experiences. experiences of one sort or another. How then do we know what experience is and its derivation? Is there anything James’s Concept of Experience behind it and causing it to be as it is? Common sense tells us that we are in Experience, in James’s view, is all the universe and the experience of the that which exists is experience and universe is within. James in his experience is all that exists. There is no made it clear that our minds general stuff of which experience at are directly aware of . They do large is made. There are as many stuffs not handle offprint of something out as there are ‘natures’ in the things there. Objects are mainly perceived as experienced. Experience is only a independently of our thoughts. These collective name for all these sensible various notions do not hang together. natures. There appears no universal For instance, how the World Trade element of which all things are made. Center Twin Towers in Before experience can be experienced, might look like after they were it must be attended to. James says : destroyed can be a mental construct of a previous recollection. “My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I Primitive experience is entirely notice shape my mind – without free from any general idea of the selective interest, experience is an utter dependence of objects upon the chaos. Interest alone gives accent knowing of them, there are certain and emphasis, light and shade, accepted cases in which an experience background and foreground – is definitely recognized as my intelligible perspective, in a world” experience, which is regarded as (James,1890, p.407). deriving from a for-me relation (Perry, 1904, p.43). This is a All our life is a mass of habits – very different idea from that of the practical, emotional, and intellectual –

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systematically organized for our weal James’s Concept of Religious or woe, and bearing us irresistibly Experience toward our destiny, whatever it may be. A new habit is formed in three stages. Religious experience to which men First there must be need or desire. Then find themselves related in their one needs information: methods of religious acts and feelings may be any learning how to maintain the habit. One object that is godlike, whether it be a might read books, attend classes, and concrete or not. Religious consciously explore ways how others experience, according to James, refers have developed the desired habit. The to man’s total reaction upon life that last state is simple repetition; there must be something solemn, consciously doing exercise or actually serious, and tender about any attitude reading and speaking until the acts which we denominate as religious. If become usual and habitual glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad, (Wulff,1997,p.484). For intellect there it must not scream. Where a religion are two levels of knowing: Knowing regards the world as tragic, the tragedy through direct experience and knowing must be understood as purging; through abstract reasoning. James calls religious sadness, wherever it exists, the first level “ of that is, it must possess a purgatorial acquaintance.” It is sensory, intuitive, note (James, 1958, p.31). poetic, and emotional. “I know the color blue when I see it, and the flavor The nature of religious experience of time when I feel it pass…but about is mystical encounter. James suggests the inner nature of these facts or what that ‘’ can be construed in makes them what they are, I can say ways that accounted as much for nothing at all” The higher level of Buddhist and transcendentalist knowledge James calls “Knowledge- experience as for Christian phenomena, about.” It is intellectual, focused, and even though Buddhists and relational; it can develop ; it transcendentalists do not positively is objective and unemotional. “When assume a in the sense of a we know about it, we can do more than superhuman person (James,1958,p.31). merely have it; we think over its When persons encounter mysticism or relations, to subject it to a form of divinity, they transact with some treatment and operate upon it with our objects that order the world in a way thought. Through feelings we become that protects all ideal interests. A acquainted with things but only with or religious experience (sometimes it is thoughts do we know about them” difficult to distinguish neatly between (James,1890, p.221). “subject” and “object”) is an experience

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of first things in the way of being and power which overarches and envelops 3. Transiency. Mystical states cannot other things so completely that what be sustained for long. Except in relates to them is the first and last word rare instances, half an hour, or at in the way of truth (James,1958,p.34). most an hour or two, seems to be the limit beyond which they fade into the light of common day. James’s Concept of Mysticism 4. Passivity of the Subject. Although In defining ‘mystic’, James a person can prepare himself for proposes that the following 4 essential and help bring about mystical characteristics should be involved: experiences, when the (James,1958,p.319) characteristic sort of consciousness has set in, the mystic feels as if his 1. Ineffability. The subjects of own were in abeyance, and mystical experiences say that such indeed sometimes as if he were an experience defines expression, grasped and held by a superior that no adequate report of the power. contents can be given in words. It follows from this that its quality Furthermore, he indicates that “the must be directly experienced; it mystical feeling of enlargement, union, cannot be imparted or transferred and emancipation has no specific to others. intellectual content whatever of its own” (James, 1958, p.425). 2. Noetic Quality. Those who have mystical experiences claim that Mysticism contributes to they have gotten or received knowledge by greatly enlarging man’s deeply significant and important field of consciousness, thereby opening insights during the experiences. up new areas of knowledge and putting Although so similar to states of “rational” knowledge into truer feeling, mystical states seem to perspective. those who experience them to be also states of knowledge. They are James perceives mysticism in two

states of insight into depths of truth ways: (James, 1958, p.427) unplumbed by the discursive intellect. They are illuminations, 1. Mysticism as a distinctive state , full of significance and of consciousness. importance, all inarticulate though 2. Mysticism as of they remain; and as a rule they in a special manner. carry with them a curious sense of authority for after time.

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Mystical states of consciousness James cites people cannot assume are distinguished from ordinary that mystical claims are indubitable consciousness, as they elude simply because they cannot point to any articulation during and after their existing method for settling disputes occurrence. They are qualitatively about them. James’s science of cognitive because they include objects provides ways to settle of consciousness. Unlike ordinary disputes about mystical claims that consciousness, mystical states cannot mystics have no way to settle be sustained for long. Those who themselves. James’s aim is to encounter them will experience a appreciate the mystical states of surrender of themselves to someone consciousness that generated these higher. Therefore, Mystical states of claims as well as to inspect religious consciousness stand at the root and conduct informed by them. I argue that center of personal religious experience. the messages of mystical experiences, though profoundly significant for those In this article, I present both directly involved, have no necessary arguments for and criticisms directed binding effect on others in the sense against James’s nature of religious that they must accept them uncritically. experience which center on the As James mentioned, there is an experience of mysticism. evidence from the point of view of psychological mechanism that the classical mysticism and the lower Defenses of the Nature of Religious mysticisms spring from the same Experience mental level (James,1958,p.426). My point is that whatever comes must be If we look at the historical past, shifted and tested, and run the gauntlet James’s mystical consciousness is of confrontation with the total context supported by important historical of experience, just like what comes precedents like the Romantic moment, from the outer world of sense. Its value followers of the Yogic must be ascertained by empirical tradition in India, and Buddhists methods, so long as we are not mystics seeking Dhyana cultivated “conscious- ourselves. ness of illumination”, just as the Sufis did among the Moslems in their Nevertheless, in my opinion, spiritual exercises. Mystics justify their whatever the non-mystical majority claims to religious knowledge by may believe, they should not deny the of their achievement through revelation mystic’s right to follow his insights. As or illumination. They claim that their James states if the mystical truth that deliverances carry the one requisite comes to a man proves to be a force mark which makes them incorrigible. that he can live by, the majority have no

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right to order him to live in another way that mystics do not mean that they have (James,1958,p.427). merely inferred what they claim to know from other things that they know. Mystical states might result in the Nor are they simply claiming to have a most energetic inspiration, but on the hunch about something. They are mystics own grounds, this could be claiming to know something reckoned an advantage only in case the indubitably that cannot possibly be inspiration were a true one. If the inferred from other things they knew inspiration were erroneous, the energy (Levinson, 1981,p.216). would be all the more mistaken and misbegotten. My argument is that the As James characterizes mystics this truth of the mystic’s beliefs are verified way, mysticism is indirect competition in the same general way in which all with scientific inquiry as a way of truths are verified. Of course, these are thinking. Although inquiry and on the basis of their origination in mysticism share a claim to cognitivity, experience and in terms of the fruitful they are at odds in almost every other relations which they establish with respect when the fact of a mystical reality in terms of human conduct. experience is used to justify a doctrine Mystical beliefs are also liable to be of criticism. My objection is that erroneous just as they come from the mystical states are not states in which outer world of sense. Therefore, I reasoning takes the leading role, but argue for mysticism that derives from these determine attitudes and open the inner sense. regions of experience not accessible to ordinary modes of thought. They signal something about the meaning of Criticisms of the Nature of Religious experience that is not discovered in any Experience other way. When mysticism is taken as intellectually authoritative, it becomes a James asserts that mystics claim to hindrance to persuasive order. Mystics know something intuitively. He was are honest in their own mystical criticized for saying that mystics know experiences, even when these intuitively by since their deliverances declarations are based on their privilege are intuitive and therefore not open to evidence. This process of persuasion is dispute. They are declarations based on suited only to people who actively seek evidence, but privileged evidence, opinions in an ordered way and help evidence shared by the mystic and God themselves to decide what to believe. alone. Therefore, mystics base their opinions on their own witness and on Levinson (1981) accuses James the authority of their own books that he is struck by the references reporting revelations. Levinson (1981) practically into experiences of also argues against James in this point deliverance investigated by

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contemporary mystical literature. The claims on mystical grounds, they did so question is whether this revelation is a not from force of persuasion but form cultural derivative of natural some sort of purportedly divine supernaturalism or some independent coercion that they felt as mystics. warrant for it. Many Romantics, for Therefore, whether mystical experience example, Wordsworth places the lead to presumptive truths or not, the “illuminated moment” at the center of mystic presents no infallible credential. their imagination. They seek visions that efface personal consciousness and In response to this claim, there are render it cosmic and bestowed a selfless beliefs that the thoughts of mystics are perspective from which they can view true and justified in some sense. An the world of impersonal worth individual is warranted to claim that he (Levinson, 1981,p.168). is in once he he is, because his feelings of pain are things My opinion is that mysticism is not to which he has privileged access. a marginal religious phenomenon as in Thus, mystics are justified in making James’s views. Reports of illumination their own claims. As James asserts dotted both religious and secular rationalists could throw a mystic into a histories. The most rudimentary sort of prison or a madhouse, but they “cannot illumination occurs whenever some change his mind” (James, 1958, p.423). deepen sense of the significance of something sweeps over one. Certain I believe that our own rational experiences and states are more beliefs are based on evidence exactly complex forms of the same similar in nature to that which mystics phenomenon. In each of these quote for theirs. Just as investigators instances, religious person’s rational, it rely on for their claims, so is suspended as they find themselves mystics rely on face to face being transported from some sort of presentations of what seems disturbance to a sense of mental ease, immediately to exist. The only motive peace, and rest. I believe that the for investigation is to overturn doubt mystics who deliver their illuminations and settle belief. assert that their claims are indubitable. Levinson (1978) argues that if the Nevertheless, James was attacked illumination of mystical experience for his statement that the mystic cannot bringss real and living doubt to an end participate in religious investigation for someone, he simply has no motive and there is no procedure to overcome for further investigation, no demand for the doubts of people who dispute his a change of mind. The mystic simply declarations. No could change asserts that his claims are not governed his mind about men, , and the by the of inquiry. His experiences world. If others accepted the mystic’s result in confession, not profession.

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Indeed, because the mystic’s beliefs are senses have assured us of certain states confessional, he cannot help believing of fact. But mystical experiences are as what he does, and so he is invulnerable direct perceptions of fact for those who to criticism. Mystical states might have them. extinquish the burning doubts of particular individuals, but that does not Nevertheless, the religious add to the veracity of the mystical experiences offered to mankind through claims. In fact, if mystical claims are mystical phenomena require selection confessional, they are not warranted at and subordination just as the all. warrant beliefs, but reason experiences which come in the plays no role in confession. Reason ordinary world. Possibilities of error plays a role only in cases in which and deception occur in dealing with people do not confess but have to mystical experiences just as they do decide what to believe (Levinson, with the more ordinary ones. But in 1978,p.212-4). testing the validity of mystical data, one must not impose upon them the same My argument is that mystical states requirements imposed upon knowledge open up the possibility of other orders coming from “rational” sources. To do of truth distant from those accessible by so would automatically eliminate all ordinary means. Mystical experiences mystical experiences from the very start may represent just such a form of because they are so different from the human consciousness. Usually our experiences found in man’s normal minds are an enormously complex stew range of consciousness. of thoughts, feelings, sensations, wants, , drives, daydreams and consciousness itself more or less aware of it all. To understand mystical Conclusion consciousness in itself, the obvious thing would be to clear away as much James denies the word “religion” to of this internal detritus and noise as any single principle or . The possible. It turns out that mystics seem name is a collective word for a huge to be doing precisely. number of different experiences, and the proper job of investigating religion I propose that the mystical must be to consider very specific experience’s claims must not be examples of all the different accepted uncritically. My point is that manifestations of human experiences. mystical experiences be subjected to the For him, all questions of value have same tests applied to rational beliefs. to meet the text of experience. And Our own rational beliefs are based on by experience he does not mean evidence exactly similar in nature to something with a capital E. He means that which mystics quote for. Our experiences, the active consequences,

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which occur in the lives of particular of many later pragmatists, individuals. tools which we use to achieve our human purposes. If they work for us, Religious experience is identified they are good (just like tools); if they as having a transcendent meaning serve no purpose, they are without within experience that causal value or truth for us, and anything investigations can only identify in terms which has no connection with the of proximate origin. In this case, practical experiences of our action is mystical experience is often cited as a irrelevant. This view of religion enables human experience that suggests the James to endorse religious experience validity of language and concepts as essential, for it provides us with protected within religious traditions. practical benefits in a way that no other Among specifically religious practices, form of experience can. some forms of have been investigated as producing a unique I propose that in the nature of experiential awareness of the world that religious experience, must become a is both meaningful and productive of critical and inductive science of personal contentment. The availability religions. On such grounds, it may hope of a religious language has been shown some day to gain acceptance even by to facilitate the report of religious non-religious people, just as the facts of experience, and for some theorists, to optics are acknowledged by those who be necessary for the experience to are born blind. But just as optics would occur. Others have provided data and not exist were it not for the experiences argument to show that both religious of seeing individuals, in the same way persons and not religiously committed the science of religions is based on the persons may have similar experiences evidence afforded by religious persons; which they simply differentially and it will never be in a position to interpret. The widest variety of decide whether in the end these religious experiences are documented to experiences themselves are illusory. be common in modern cultures for This last question of the objective and human . absolute significance of religious phenomena will be impossible to solve Religious ideas do not exist for us scientifically, and it will always be for to contemplate or argue about the individual either to leave it open to abstractly. They exist for us to use. settle it by an act of personal They are, in effect, to use the favorite experience.

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References

1. James, William. The Varieties of 8. Cotkin George. “William James, Religious Experience: A Study in Public Philosopher”, series of New Human Nature. New York: The Studies in American Intellectual Modern Library, 1958. and Cultural History, 1994.

2. ______“Does Consciousness 9. Levinson, Henry S. Science, exist?”, Journal of Philosophy, , and the Chance of Psychology and Scientific Salvation: An Interpretation of the Methods, vol. 1, 1904. Thought of William James. Missoula, Mont., 1978. 3. ______. Pragmatism, Cambridge: Harvard University 10. ______. The Religious Press, 1975. Investigations of William James. University of North Carolina 4. ______. The Principles of Press, 1981. Psychology, 2 vols., New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1890. 11. Perry R. Barton. “Conception and Misconceptions of 5. ______. “A World of Pure Consciousness”, Psychological Experience”, Journal of Review, vol. 11, 1904. Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, vol. 1, 1904. 12. Putnam,Ruth Anna. The Cambridge Companion to William James. 6. Alston, William P. “The Autonomy Cambridge University Press, of Religious Experience”. 1997. International Journal Philosophy, 1992. 13. Tunerlty, Peter. “Judging God by ‘Human’ Standards: Reflection on 7. Coles, Robert. “A Passionate William James’ Varieties of Commitment to Experience?: A Religious Experience”, review of A Stroll with William Philosophy, 1998. James; Jacque Barzun”, http://www.emory.edu/education/ 14. Wulff, David. Psychology of mfp/stro1rev.html,2001. Religion. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997. ____

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