From: Sam Norton (elizaphanian@kohath.wanadoo.co.uk)
Date: Sat Dec 25 2004 - 12:36:57 GMT
Hi David (DMB)
Happy Christmas to you and all your loved ones.
> Here's a question for you Sam. And I'm quite serious. What's the difference
> between the mystical experience as James describes it and the description
> Plotinus gives us in THE ONE?
This is an excellent question, and I shall enjoy answering it - not least because it will ensure
that I expand my knowledge of Plotinus, of whom I don't know all that much. But given the time of
year, it'll probably be the middle of next week before I can supply the answer.
dmb was stunned:
Argument to authority? Huh? As I understand it, you're trying to hang
Schleiermacher around the neck of philosophical mysticism by tracing a line
from him to the MOQ. And yet he is conspicuously absent as an influence. I
can now add that he does not even appear in the index of William James'
VARITIES. Its hard to imagine that his influence could be very substantial
if he is not mentioned even once, don't you think? This is not an argument
from authority. You say he has had a profound impact of some sort and I say
he's not even mentioned. I have a verifiable fact which seriously calls your
assertion into question. One can't prove a negative, but that's pretty
close.
Sam:
Here I want to appeal to the referee, because I have consistently asked DMB to read outside his
usual field. Most particularly, I would like you to read Grace Jantzen's book, which I've referred
to consistently. (Hey, if you let me have your snail mail address, I will buy it for you - it's on
Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521479266/qid=1103977550/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/103-6743377-1319830?v=glance&s=books
and you can read the first chapter there. Just give it a look, please, please, please - it'll help
us hugely, I'm sure.)
Specifically, her argument in Section III of Chapter 8 is twenty pages explaining the link from
Schleiermacher to William James. Now, perhaps she is completely wrong - I certainly am not in a
position to second-guess her about Schleiermacher. But I have studied James' Varieties in some
detail, and I can vouch for her accuracy there.
Cheers
Sam
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