William James

Question 1

who is he

Answer 1

-philospher+psychologist who cliamed religous experience occur in diff religions+ have similar features

Question 2

mystics

Answer 2

-ppl who have + try to have religous experinces
-they r intense + immersive experinces
-“defies expression, that no adequate report of its contents can be given in words” its ineffable

Question 3

James’ four criteria which characterise all mystical religious experiences:

Answer 3

• Ineffable – the experience is beyond language and cannot be put into words to accurately described.
• Noetic – some sort of knowledge or insight is gained
• Transient – the experience is temporary
• Passive – the experience happens to a person; the person doesn’t make the experience happen.

Question 4

James’ pluralist argument for religious experience

Answer 4

-experinces r coming from a higher spirtual reality
-they r the core of religion, teachings + practices were ‘2nd hand’ religion
-pluralist=view all religions r true

Question 5

W. Stace

Answer 5

developed this argument much more explicitly, claiming that the universality of certain features of religious experiences is good evidence that they are real.

Question 6

Paul Knitter

Answer 6

-pluralist who makes similar argument about RE
-points to a metaphor=each religion is a well, if u go to bottom (via ME) u get down to underground water that u then realise is source all other wells (other religions)

Question 7

Alternative explanation

Answer 7

• cross cultural similarity of features of RE could have naturalistic expl
  -it could be all human brains hallucinate similary bc they evolved similarly
  -could be RE serve a universal psychological/sociological function
  -we can explain cross cultural similarities of RE w/out needing the unnecessary expl of higher spirtual reality

Question 8

James’ pragmatism argument, including conversion experiences

Answer 8

-he wasnt satsifed w attempt to dismiss RE as hallucinations
-RE have positive+profound lifechanging effects-which we can observe
-the validity of experince depends upon effects on life
-pragmatist= philosophical view on epistemology which states that if something is good for us or works, then that is evidence of its truth.
-eg alcholic who have RE n gives up drinking

Question 9

James on conversion experiences

Answer 9

-they r a strong eg of james point about life changing impact of RE
-he viewed CE as transformation from an unhappy divided/imperfect self w guilty conscience to more unified happy state

Question 10

Counter to James’ pragmatism argument

Answer 10

-he may be right about most hallucinations but they can be lifechanging
-if hallucination happens to fit w certain beliefs person might br life changing even tho not real
-aethist hallucinates wont chnage their life but if religious does then it might