Self and transcendence: A study in the phenomenology of religion (Max Scheler, Maurice Blondel, Louis Dupre)

Immanuel Kant's epistemology dealt a crippling blow to the possibility of obtaining knowledge of transcendent reality. In the course of this project I examine an Augustinian line of thought in the philosophy of religion that has not received much attention. The line is found in the work of Max Scheler, Maurice Blondel and Louis Dupré, who saw the potential and limitations of engaging in a phenomenological investigation of religious experiences. Scheler, Blondel and Dupré argued for the insufficiency of philosophy to establish a traditional proof for the existence or non-existence of god, and they also pointed to the benefits of a phenomenological approach.; The motivation for my project is twofold. In Louis Dupré's work he pointed to a contemporary crisis of self. We are bequeathed the Socratic precepts of “know thyself” and “the unexamined life is not worth living”. According to Dupré, however, we may not know what we mean by “self”, due to our focus on the self as entirely rational, active, free and creative. We ignore the passive element of self constitution. Although the seeds of this concept of self were brought to fruition in the Enlightenment, the utterly active concept of self remains with us. Dupré argued that we need a fully developed concept of self that includes its passivity and transcendent nature, and considers the possibility of connecting the self to transcendent reality.; The other impetus for my project is my own goal of gaining insight into diverse viewpoints or belief systems. In our current global situation of competing truth claims and worldviews, I think much can be accomplished by seeking to understand others' positions and beliefs. Phenomenology can aid in the process of gaining insight for three reasons: (1) The phenomenologist looks at what is given to intuition; (2) The phenomenologist analyzes the meaning of the given; (3) The phenomenologist does not seek to provide proofs, but only to describe phenomena.; While Husserl's radical phenomenological epochê did not leave an avenue to transcendent reality, Scheler, Blondel and Dupré found an approach possible if phenomenology is identified with the three points above rather than the epochê.