Knowing Beyond Knowledge: Epistemologies of Religious Experience in Classical and Modern Advaita Contributor(s): Forsthoefel, Thomas A. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1138721492 ISBN-13: 9781138721494 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $40.80 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2019 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | Eastern - Religion - Body, Mind & Spirit | Spiritualism - General |
Dewey: 181.482 |
Series: Ashgate World Philosophies |
Physical Information: 0.45" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (0.67 lbs) 200 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: This title was first published in 2002. This book builds on contemporary discussion of 'mysticism' and religious experience by examining the process and content of 'religious knowing' in classical and modern Advaita. Drawing from the work of William Alston and Alvin Plantinga, Thomas Forsthoefel examines key streams of Advaita with special reference to the conditions, contexts, and scope of epistemic merit in religious experience. Forsthoefel uniquely employs specific analytical categories of contemporary Western epistemologies as heuristics to examine the cognitive dimension of religious experience in Indian Vedanta. Showing the developing nuances in the analysis of religious experience in the thought of Shankara and his immediate disciples (Suresvara and Padmapada) as well as in the teaching of Ramana Maharshi, an understudied but important South Indian saint of the 20th century, this book offers a substantial contribution to studies of Indian philosophy as well as to contemporary philosophy of religion. Using the tools of exegesis and comparative philosophy, Forsthoefel argues for a careful justification of claims following religious experience, even if such claims involve, as they do in the Advaita, a paradoxical 'knowing beyond knowledge'. |