Taking nature mysticism seriously: Marshall and the metaphysics of the self
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2011
Publication Source
Religious Studies
Volume Number
47
Issue Number
2
First Page
165
Last Page
183
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
ISSN
0034-4125
Abstract
Paul Marshall takes extrovertive mystical experience seriously by providing a metaphysical framework inspired by Plotinus and Leibniz that aims to interpret it non-reductively and to explain it persuasively. However praiseworthy Marshall's intentions, his account fails for a variety of reasons, among them an inability to establish convincingly why natural objects appear as transfigured and alive, characteristics frequently encountered in the reports of nature mystics. An alternative approach, rooted in contemporary pan-experientialist philosophy of mind, is able to take extrovertive mysticism equally seriously while accounting more successfully for its pre-eminent features at a less extravagant metaphysical cost.
Recommended Citation
Published in: Religious Studies, Volume 47, Issue 2, June 1, 2011, pages 165-183. Copyright © 2011 Cambridge University Press, New York. The final published version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0034412510000211
