Texts:
D. Kalupahana, Buddhist Philosophy, available in the bookstore
"Mysticism" has come to be associated with vagueness, foggy thinking, paranormal phenomena and magic. In fact, is something far more interesting. Since pre-recorded time, people have engaged in the practice of sitting and focusing their minds to enter a kind of trance. Those who do so report, cross-culturally, that they undergo a special kind of compelling, incommunicable experience of the underlying unity of all things that motivates deep selflessness, kindness, and joy.
Mystical experience is the starting point for both religion and philosophy. In religion, it is thought to provide direct, empirical evidence about the object of devotion, which lies beyond all ordinary sensory evidence. Successful mystics don't need religious faith any more than you need faith in trees, because they think they observe fundamental reality directly, but neophytes and lay people need faith that they are on the path to mystical experience, just as a grade school science student requires faith that she will eventually understand quantum mechanics.
In philosophy, mystical experience motivates the fundamental questions about the nature of reality, self, reason, knowledge, and philosophy, itself. For if mystical experience is true, then reality is much different from the way we ordinarily understand it to be, so ordinary (and even scientific) reason cannot be trusted as a guide to fundamental truth. If, on the other hand, mystical experience is a psychologically-induced delusion, then physics and psychology win, reason should be heeded, and philosophy has the responsibility to unravel the delusion. The trouble is that both the mystic and the scientist say the other side is deluded and both could be right.
The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to a range of mystical traditions drawn from different cultures and historical periods and to examine their relationships to philosophy. We will consider the matter both ways, examining the impact of mystical experience on philosophy and the influence of philosophical concepts on the mystical tradition itself. Throughout the term,we will be asking ourselves the hard philosophical question whether mystical wisdom is purely experiential and authoritative or is actually infected by philosophical presuppositions.
This is a freshman seminar. The course will be based on discussion. It is imperative for all involved (particularly your fellow students) that all of you read the course material twice over and think about what you are reading.
The primary mystical texts are highly ambiguous and it is up to you to come prepared with alternative interpretations. The secondary texts discuss what is admitted to be indescribable and, therefore, present their own challenges.
To credit you for this hard, but private preparation for class discussion, I will assign short reading questions along with each reading assignment to be turned in at the end of the class at which the reading is discussed. The reading questions will lose 50% of their value if turned in later than the end of class, since the point is to be prepared for the class discussion, rather than to listen to the discussion to find the answers to the questions. Also, the reading questions must be printed from a word processor rather than hand written, both to facilitate grading and to preclude last-minute adjustments during class. In fairness to you, I will be quite firm about all of this.
The reading questions should require only one or two short sentences in response. Aim for brevity and accuracy rather than vague coverage of all possibilities.
The papers are very short, in order to force you to focus upon what is essential. A good idea is to write a paper twice as long and then cut it down to its bare essentials.
· Ineffability and presupposition
· First paper assignment
· Buddhism
Reading assignment 1.
William James' The
Varieties of Religious Experience Lectures XVI and XVII, on Mysticism.
Reading Questions:
Special Extra Assignment (counts as a whole reading assignment): Reread the discussion of Al Ghazzali. Try your best to explain what blue is to a blind person and anticipate the blind person's skeptical objections to what you say.
Reading assignment 2.
William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience Lectures XVIII, on Philosophy.
Reading Questions:
Check this:
Other Upanishads online
Lots of Upanishads online
Eknath
Easwaran, ed., The Upanishads, Berkeley: Nilgri Press, 1995.
Notes:
"Tadvana" is a mysterious name for Brahman that is thought to mean
"beloved one".
Reading Questions:
Reading assignment 5
The
Bhagavad-Gita
Chapters 1, 2, 3.
Reading Questions (optional for extra credit due to late posting of assignment):
Reading assignment 6
Short
introduction to the Bhagavad Gita
Short description
of Krishna
The
Bhagavad-Gita: Chapters 4, 9, 12
Reading Questions:
Reading Assignment 7
Reading Questions
Check this:
Pro Advaita page: real people who
are devoted to Shankara's philosophy
Summary of
Shankara's position
Dvaita (anti-advaita page)
Reading Assignment 8
Handout: Excerpt from chapter 1 of Robert Nozick's Philosophical Explanations (here is the last page).
Sorry, the scanned files came out big so use dsl or the Ethernet to read them.
There are two main branches of Buddhism, Theravada (way of
the elders) and Mahayana (great vehicle). Theravada Buddhism says that
the later texts are spurious additions. Mahayana Buddhism says that the
early texts were written for ignorant peasants who couldn't understand the
Buddha's secret teaching.
The "tipitaka" (three baskets) is the basic core of the Buddhist
canon, taken as authoritative by all branches of Buddhism. It is thought
to derive from oral tradition descending from Gautama himself. The usual
Buddhist catechisms and FAQ sheets are usually drawn from this
fundamental source, as are the third and fourth reading below.
Questions:
Chapters 1 and 2, Buddhist Philosophy by David C. Kalupahana (the paper textbook for the class). The first chapter places Buddhism squarely in the context of the material we have studied so far, so it provides a useful outline of the first half of the semester..
Cross-indexed hypertext of the tipitaka! Very well done: technical terms are hyper-linked to definitions occurring in primary sources. Double-check Kalupahana's references! Hypertree table of contents for easy navigation. Great resource for, say, a paper on Buddhism....
Chapters 3 and 4, Buddhist Philosophy.
Causal cycle of rebirth: Samyutta
Nikaya XII.2, Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta.
Chapter7, Buddhist Philosophy
Majjhima
Nikaya 72, Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta, To Vacchagotta on Fire
Chapters 8, 9, Buddhist Philosophy, to page 101.
Chapter 10, Buddhist Philosophy
The following text is quoted in the chapter: Chapter 4, Lotus Sutra
Chapter 11, Buddhist Philosophy
Chapter 12, Buddhist Philosophy
Appendix2, Buddhist Philosophy
Taoism
in
Introduction to Tao te Ching with comments on Zen
(stop at the heading "notes on interpretation")
Tao te Ching, chapters 1-50 (also in
Chinese).
Orphism
Pythagoreanism: click
"Pythagoreanism" and then look at Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy
entry and at "Fragments" (just Plato's and Aristotle's).
Parmenides
Melissos
Reading questions:
Zeno's paradoxes and discussion
If you
think you solved the tortoise, look here
Phaedo (whole text)
List four analogies between Plato's doctrine and any of the Eastern mystical
traditions we have studied. Be sure to mention which tradition you are
drawing an analogy to.
Length 4 pages + references
Double spaced
12 pt. Times Roman font.
Cite all sources.
Do some extra reading.
Don't include introductory fluff, like "The concept of Nirvana is very
important"--- there isn't any room for it.
Possible topics:
Due last day of class
Max length 5 pages + references
Double spaced
12 pt. Times Roman font.
Cite all sources.
Do some extra reading.
Grading criteria will be same as last time. I'll expect a bit more
sophistication on the second try.
Possible topics: