William James’in Mistik Tecrübe Tahlili Fenomenolojik mi Yoksa Felsefi midir?

Mistik tecrübe kavramı bugün Mutlak, Tanrı, Hiçlik, Boşluk gibi farklı biçimlerde isimlen-dirilen Nihai Gerçeklik ile saf, dolaysız bir birleşme tecrübesi olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Bu tanımlama görece yenidir, zira kavram, yaklaşık 19. yüzyıla kadar Hristiyan azizleri tara-fından “dini hakikatlere ulaşma” anlamında kullanılmaktadır. 19. yüzyılda mistik tecrübe psikosomatik hastalıklarla ilişkilendirilmis ve mistikler, sapkın dini hareketlerin bir par-çası olarak görülmüştür. Ancak 20 yüzyıla gelindiğinde, mistik tecrübenin evrensel bir fenomen olduğunu ve bir fenomen olması bakımından dinden bağımsız olarak ele alınıp anlaşılabileceğini savunan çalışmalar ortaya çıkmıştır. Şüphesiz William James (1842-1910), hastalık hali olarak kabul edilen mistik tecrübenin aslında insanlık tecrübesinin değerli bir unsuru olduğunu iddia ederek bu tartışmalara önemli bir katkı sağlayan öncü bir filozoftur. Materyalist doğa anlayışının hâkim olduğu ve dinin bilimle çelişiği kabul edildiği bir dönemde James, en bilinen eserlerinden biri olan The Varieties of Religious Expe-rience: A Study in Human Nature (Dinsel Deneyimin Çeşitleri: İnsan Doğası Üzerine Bir İnceleme) İnsanlık kitabında, doğalcılıkla çelişmeyen mistik tecrübeye dayalı bireysel bir din fikrini temellendirir. Bu temellendirme mistik tecrübenin nesnel/fenomenolojik tahliline daya-nır.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

William James, Mistik Tecrübe, Bilinç Durumu, Dini Tecrübe, Dini Fenomenoloji

Is William James’s Analysis of Mystic Experience Phenomenological or Philosophical?

The concept of mystical experience is defined today as an experience of uniting with the Ultimate Reality, which is named as Absolute, God and Nothingness, in a pure and direct way. The aforementioned definition is relatively new since this concept had been used by Christian saints to mean “attaining religious truths” until about the 19th century. In the 19th century, mystical experiences were associated with psychosomatic illnesses and that mystics were considered as being part of deviant religious movements. By the 20th century, however, new academic debates emerged claiming that mystical experience was a universal phenomenon and that it could be understood independent of religion as a separate a phenomenon. Undoubtedly, William James (1842-1910) was the leading philosopher who uniquely contributed to these debates claiming that mystical experi-ence, which had been accepted as a state of illness, was a valuable element of human experience. In an age where materialistic naturalism was rising and the understanding that science and religion contradict one another was prevalent, James asserted that the idea of an individual religion against materialism, which depends on mystical experience and does not conflict with the idea of nature in his well-known work, The Varieties of Reli-gious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. This claim of James is rooted in the objec-tive/phenomenological analysis of mystic experience.

Keywords:

Philosophy of Religion William James, Mystical Experience, State of Consciousness, Religious Experience, Religious Phenomenology,

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