William James’ Ineffable ‘More’: In Philosophy of Language and Neuroscience

Weed, Laura E.

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-18013-2_11

Laura E. Weed¹⁷

Part of the book series: Comparative Philosophy of Religion ((COPR,volume 4))

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Abstract

Laura Weed argues in this article that William James’ ‘overbelief’ conception of religious experience as originating in an ‘ineffable more’ which functions as a “mother sea” of consciousness within the deepest reaches of a human’s psyche, but also as something continuous with a more extensive, impersonal consciousness outside a person, can be understood in light of contemporary Philosophy of Language and Neuroscience. In this paper Weed analyzes the relationships among James’ ‘more,’ meaning in language, and religious experience. She uses contemporary theories of language, and neuroscience to do this analysis, arguing that James’ analysis is important for contemporary understanding of these aspects of human experience, and that neuroscience has begun to offer glimpses at the nature of “the mother sea” within.

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Notes

1.
James, W. 1958: The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Mentor Books. pp. 421–422. James is quoting Meyers from the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. 7. p. 305.
2.
James W. 1958: 1901–1902: Gifford Lectures, in Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: New American Library Mentor Books. p. 319.
3.
James, W. 1909: “The confidences of a ‘psychical researcher’.” Autograph manuscript, signed, b MS Am 1092.9 (4545) online at http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/james/psychical/7_8.cfm
4.
Alston W. 2000: Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
5.
For example, Wittgenstein, L. 1922: Tractatus Logico Philosophicus. trans. Ramsey, F. P. and Ogden C. K. London: Kegan Paul, or several members of the Vienna Circle, such as Moritz Schlick, Rudolph Carnap, or Otto Neurath. Logical atomists typically argued that all thinking is done in language, and all language is reducible to logical structure.
6.
Searle J. R. 1969: Speech Acts, an Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Chap. 3.
7.
Perley, D. 2004: “First -hand Experience and Second-hand Language in the Varieties.” Streams of William James. The William James Society, vol. 6, Issue 1, Spring 16.
8.
Lakoff, G. 1987: Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press. Chap. 17.
9.
Lakoff G. and Johnson, M. 1999: Philosophy in the Flesh. New York, NY: Perseus Group Basic Books. pp. 54–55.
10.
Panksepp, J. 1999: Affective Neuroscience. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 308.
11.
See Terrace, H.S, 2019: Why Chimpanzees Can’t Learn Language and Only Humans Can. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Some animals may have minimal linguistic ability, as experiments with Nim by Herbert Terrace pointed out, but success was limited.
12.
Affective Neuroscience. p. 331.
13.
Affective Neuroscience. p. 334.
14.
Affective Neuroscience. p. 278.
15.
Allison, R. C. 2004: “Reading Material. William James and the Language of Consciousness” in Streams of William James, vol. 6, issue 3, Fall 2004.
16.
Tillich, P. 1951, 1957, 1963: Systematic Theology. 3 vols. Systematic Theology, Vol.I. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 240.
17.
Lewis, T. Amini F. and Lannon, R. 2000: A General Theory of Love. New York: Vintage Books. Random House Inc. p. 63.
18.
A General Theory of Love, 61.
19.
Meyers, G. E. 1997: “Pragmatism and Introspective Psychology.” The Cambridge Companion to William James. ed. Ruth Anna Putnam, R.A. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 16.
20.
Meyers, G. E. 1997: p. 17.
21.
Goodman, R. B. 2004: “James and the Non-Conceptual,” in Streams of William James, vol. 6, issue 3, Fall 2004. p. 9.
22.
Wilshire, B. 1997: “The breathtaking intimacy of the material world: Wm. James’ last thoughts.” The Cambridge Companion to William James. ed. Putnam, R. A. p. 107.
23.
Wittgenstein, L. 1961: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, trans. Pears D.F. and McGuinness, B.F. London, UK: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. p. 74.
24.
Shen, A. 2011: The Limits of Language, A Comparative Study of Kant, Wittgenstein, and Lao Tzu. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press. pp. 149–155.
25.
Chen, R.P. 2004: “Comparative views of Metaphysics; Between Zen and Early Wittgenstein” presented at the International Institute for Field Being’s meeting at the Eastern APA in Boston, Dec. 2004.
26.
Bagger, M. 2007: The Uses of Paradox: Religion, Self-transformation and the Absurd. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press. p. 68.
27.
Bagger, M. 2007: The Uses of Paradox. pp. 69–70.
28.
Brockmeier, J. 2002: “Ineffable Experience” in The Varieties of Religious Experience, Centenary Essays. ed. Ferrari, M. Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic. pp. 79, 83–84, 92.
29.
Wittgenstein, L. 1953: Philosophical Investigations, trans. Anscombe, G.E.M. New York: Macmillan Co. p. 100, remark # 293.
30.
Wittgenstein, L. Philosophical Investigations.
31.
James, W. Varieties. pp. 376–377.
32.
James, W. Varieties. pp. 137–139.
33.
James, W. Varieties p. 328.
34.
Damasio A. 1997: Descartes’ Error. New York: Quill Press, Harper Collins. pp. 3–7.
35.
Damasio A. 1997: pp. 159–160.
36.
Damasio, A. 1997: p. 150 ff.
37.
Otto, R. 1950: The Idea of the Holy, trans. Harvey, J.W. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
38.
Damasio, A. p. 188 ff.
39.
Taylor, E. 2002: “William James and Depth Psychology.” in The Varieties of Religious Experience, Centenary Essays, p. 26.
40.
Taylor, E. p. 27.
41.
Rosch, E. 2002: “How to Catch James’s Mystical Germ” in Ferrari, p. 39. Brackets are mine.
42.
Rosch, E. 2002: italics in original.
43.
Rosch, E. 2002: p. 42.
44.
James, W. Varieties. p. 102.
45.
McNamara, P. 2009/2011: The Neuroscience of Religious Experience. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 105–106.
46.
NcNamara, P. pp. 45, 46.

References

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Google Scholar
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Google Scholar
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Google Scholar
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Google Scholar
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Google Scholar
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Book Google Scholar
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Google Scholar
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Google Scholar
Perley, D., (2004) “First -hand Experience and Second-hand Language in the Varieties,” in Streams of William James, The William James Society, vol. 6 Issue 1, Spring 16
Google Scholar
Rosch, E., (2002) “How to Catch James’s Mystical Germ” in The Varieties of Religious Experience, Centenary Essays, ed. Michel Ferrari, (Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic).
Google Scholar
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Philosophy Department, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY, USA
Laura E. Weed

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Philosophy Department, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY, USA
Laura E. Weed

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Weed, L.E. (2023). William James’ Ineffable ‘More’: In Philosophy of Language and Neuroscience. In: Weed, L.E. (eds) Mysticism, Ineffability and Silence in Philosophy of Religion. Comparative Philosophy of Religion, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18013-2_11

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18013-2_11
Published: 14 January 2023
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-18012-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-18013-2
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