Re: Prospects for a Phenomenological Idealism
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 9:53 pm
Well, I think one can arrive at 'ethical individualism' without one's conscience being especially lucid. I would say it is implicit in 18th century Enlightenment thinking.AshvinP wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2023 5:36 pm
Right, the change from outer experience to inner experience of thinking is definitely the most stark. If one considers it in terms of a change from the necessary obeyance of natural and cultural authorities for moral guidance to the possibility of following only one's increasingly lucid conscience, then we arrive at the core theme of the 2nd half of PoF and 'ethical individualism'.
The bold bit is Part II talk, not Part I. One can't "establish" anything in Part I. Only argue for, philosophically (with some empirical observations, like the evolution of consciousness data). Or at least that's how I think of it.In my mind, the key is to show how the "not experienced" is experienced if we pay enough attention, and ideally how it is experienced in the very act of exploring the question of how it is experienced. Until then, the 'supernatural cause' will elude us or remain hopelessly abstract, because our normal habit of thinking will find satisfactory explanations for the evidence presented in natural causes or cultural conventions. Or it will go the Kantian route and say "this isn't satisfactory, but the only possibility of satisfaction is once the veil is lifted for me by physical death". So I'm not sure how to establish that part of Part I without already blending into Part II, i.e. metaphors that compare parts of our familiar experience and understanding to experience of higher worlds.