Nature Of Ultimate Reality Research Articles

Naturalism and the hard problem of mysticism in psychedelic science.

Psychedelic substances are known to facilitate mystical-type experiences which can include metaphysical beliefs about the fundamental nature of reality. Such insights have been criticized as being incompatible with naturalism and therefore false. This leads to two problems. The easy problem is to elaborate on what is meant by the "fundamental nature of reality," and whether mystical-type conceptions of it are compatible with naturalism. The hard problem is to show how mystical-type insights, which from the naturalistic perspective are brain processes, could afford insight into the nature of reality beyond the brain. I argue that naturalism is less restrictive than commonly assumed, allowing that reality can be more than what science can convey. I propose that what the mystic refers to as the ultimate nature of reality can be considered as its representation- and observation-independent nature, and that mystical-type conceptions of it can be compatible with science. However, showing why the claims of the mystic would be true requires answering the hard problem. I argue that we can in fact directly know the fundamental nature of one specific part of reality, namely our own consciousness. Psychedelics may amplify our awareness of what consciousness is in itself, beyond our conceptual models about it. Moreover, psychedelics may aid us to become aware of the limits of our models of reality. However, it is far from clear how mystical-type experience could afford access to the fundamental nature of reality at large, beyond one's individual consciousness. I conclude that mystical-type conceptions about reality may be compatible with naturalism, but not verifiable.

The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality by William Egginton (review)

The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality by William Egginton (review)

Are you praying to a videogame God? Some theological and philosophical implications of the simulation hypothesis

ABSTRACT The hypothesis that we may be living in a digital simulation is utilized as a ‘thought experiment’ to help clarify important questions in theology and philosophy, including the nature of God, the significance and importance of an afterlife, and the ultimate nature of reality. It is argued that a consideration of the simulation hypothesis renders problematic traditional conceptions of a personal, creator, omnipotent deity, makes the theological significance of a purported afterlife far less significant, and paradoxically undermines the very materialistic view of reality that underlies the simulation hypothesis in the first place. It is concluded that the simulation hypothesis renders ‘science’ virtually irrelevant to ultimate questions in philosophy and theology and elevates ethics and axiology to fundamental status for our understanding of reality and any defensible conception of the divine.

A Ratiocinative Assessment of A.J. Ayer’s Rejection of Metaphysics.

Purpose: This paper aims at exposing and appraising the arguments of A.J. Ayer against metaphysics, as reflected in the first chapter of his book, Language, Truth and Logic. It shall explore the basic assumptions, content and concerns of the metaphysical enterprise, and place them in careful juxtaposition with A.J. Ayer’s positivist assumptions in order to discover whether the claims he makes regarding metaphysics are really valid or not. The conclusion will emphasize the relevance and irrefutability of metaphysics.
 Methodology: The work is expository, analytic, critical and evaluative, in its methodology.
 Findings: Sir Alfred Julius Ayer was an English philosopher who developed key features of logical positivism. His book Language, Truth, and Logic (1936) is one of the most influential philosophy books in the 20th century, addressing questions of reality, perception, knowledge and meaning. In it Ayer explains important positivist ideas, like the principle of verifiability as a criterion of meaning, the rejection of metaphysics, and the emotivist theory of ethics. In Ayer’s logical empiricism, philosophy is no longer seen as a metaphysical concern, nor as an attempt to provide speculative truths about the nature of ultimate reality. Instead, philosophy is seen as an activity of defining and clarifying the logical relationships of empirical propositions.
 Unique Contribution to theory, practice and policy (recommendation): The ratiocinative discussion of A. J. Ayer’s rejection of Metaphysics, offers an alternative perspective on how Metaphysics should be construed, given its centrality to, and in-eliminability in philosophical discourses.

The Fluid Discontinuity Theory

Theoretical Physics is perhaps the only class of philosophies that has really enhanced and evolved itself to a lot of extent seeking clues towards the ultimate nature of reality. Stretching from the Theory of General Relativity and Quantum Physics, it’s been diversified with quite peculiar answers to multiple deep facets. However, still there is a significant fragment of Physics which is yet to be developed in that theoretical frame of system where the mathematical analysis turns in a more definitive role and thus, holds the intersection of certain other branches of the field and this area is Fluid Dynamics or Hydrodynamics. Although there is no question over some forsooth brilliant contributions in the regime but still, this discovery will deal with a nonpareil strand in order to fill some gaps which will determine new findings to lead the coming times much exclusively through the realm. The proposed discovery in this paper, being chronicle on the most primordial basis; is about quilting the distinction of waves as a whole in the fluid being in layered form and its impact via penetration of mass into those in form of respective disturbance in its fabrication of fundamental geometry. In other words, the idea proposed is about investigating and evolving the understanding of fluid discontinuity in distinctive extents forming geometrical patterns which is the idea that has also been undertaken to insights by some of the greatest Philosophers, Physicists, and Mathematicians of the last two centuries from Helmholtz to Lord Kelvin to Einstein but unfortunately it could not be attained in a full turn of deeper understanding in terms of Theoretical and Mathematical evolution as attempted by all these greatest forefathers of Sciences. In order to extract the idea with the overlap of modern mathematical integration, the entire formation of the defined system is taken into the account by establishing geometrical interpretations which will also develop more protean insights into the field and fill many further gaps in the classical regime of the Dynamics and gives a modern turn to it. The fabrication of the idea is systematically unfolded in terms of both Theoretical & Mathematical engagements concerning to the respective structures taking place in form of different theories partaking in an evolutionary methodology.

Time of the End? More-Than-Human Humanism and Artificial Intelligence

The first part (“Is there a future?”), discusses the idea of the future in the context of Carl Schmitt’s vision for the spatial revolutions of modernity, and then the idea of Anthropocene, as a synonym for an environmental crisis endangering the very survival of humankind. From this point of view, the conquest of space and the colonization of Mars at the center of futuristic and technocratic visions appear to be an attempt to escape from human responsibilities on Earth. The second part (“AI and other hyperobjects”) discusses the extent of intellectual hubris expressed in computation, AI (Garvin Minsky e Ray Kurzweil), and the philosophy of computing and information (Eric Fredkin), involved in the elaboration of new theoretical assessments on the ultimate nature of reality. Their vision is then contrasted and made to interact with that of philosopher Timothy Morton. He has taken the perspective of global warming and the possibility of ecological catastrophe seriously, avoiding all the futuristic enthusiasms and instead emphasizing the radical nature of the transformations that humans experience in the present. In this perspective, AI becomes one of the “hyperobjects,” like the Internet or climate change, in which humans are immersed. Morton’s hyperobjects delineate an uncanny view of the future; this uncanniness is not related to the supernatural but to the environment. The third section (“More-than-human-humanism”) further reflects on the “uncanniness” that human perceive in the encounters with the manifestations of hyperobjects. It also seeks to understand the human position in the face of the radical technological transformations induced by cybernetics and AI. This section discusses Anti-humanism, Transhumanism, and Posthumanism within the broader category of more-than-human thought, which seems to be a more appropriate term to clarify the possible misunderstandings induced by the word “posthuman” and “transhuman.” The central question is not to empower (Transhumanism) or disempower (Posthumanism) humans, but to see them in relation to what is not human, including other animals, the environment, and the machine. The analysis considers the works of Cary Wolfe, Jane Bennet, Bryant Levi, among others, and introduces ethical debates on cyborgs, robots, and Autonomous weapons systems (AWS). The fourth section (“Ethical Perspectives”) continues this inquiry, concentrating on the non-standard ethical theories of Luciano Floridi (Computer and Information Ethics) and David Gunkel (The question of the Machine). It examines the opportunity and feasibility of including in the discussion on the ethics of our time - characterized by the pervasiveness of AI - the notions of consciousness as theorized by Emmanuel Levinas’s Humanism of the Other and Paul Ricoeur’s Oneself as Another. Finally, the last section (“The time of the end?”) reflects on how the hyperobject, Anthropocene, re-establishes a sense of limits in human history and confirms the special responsibility of human beings, and supports the need for a more-than-human-humanism. The latter, in other words, means intertwining ourselves with a unique ecosystem which cannot be overlooked and which restores meaning to our relationship with the past, present, and future. The awareness of the current challenges of technology can and must express itself in different forms of resistance to the adverse effects of AI in our lives. The ethical approach based on the persisting role of human consciousness is essential, but it must be coupled with human decision-making and political action.

Merit, Demons, and Karma: Catholic Victim Souls and the Tibetan Practice of gCod

The purpose of this article is to map the points of contact, as well as the irreducible differences, between the Catholic tradition of victim soul spirituality and the Tibetan practice of gcod (chod). Victim soul spirituality develops in the framework of an Anselmian theology of the atonement, where the individual practitioner offers herself as an expiatory victim to God's wrath so to appease God's justice that requires reparation for the sins of humanity. A practice that knew its heyday in the Counter-Reformation period and enjoyed its highest degree of popularity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, victim soul spirituality, has virtually disappeared from contemporary Catholicism in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. At the same time, many Western practitioners of Buddhism have grown more interested in the practice of gcod (chod), which consists of a symbolic offer of one's body to demons and other malevolent beings that seek to thwart one's progress toward nirvāna. Developed originally by the female mystic Machig Labdron (1055–1149), gcod is analogous to victim soul spirituality as it reflects a sacrificial dialectic where individual practitioners can appease supernatural entities that can sustain or thwart our spiritual progress. At the same time, a close analysis of the two practices will reveal significant points of divergence, as the two traditions rest on radically distinct claims concerning individual subjectivity, soteriology, and the nature of ultimate reality.

Truth, Identity, Pluralism in Contemporary Society - Gandhi's Response

This paper explores Gandhi’s attitude towards diversity of religions and examines as to how he attempted to bring inter-faith harmony. Religious diversity has been a topic of serious debate in the contemporary philosophical discourse on understanding religion. Religious pluralism is one of the approaches that deal with issues concerning the diversity of religions. It is believed that no single religion can make absolute claims about the nature of divine reality, its relation to man and the world. It stands in direct opposition to exclusivism, inclusivism and also to fundamentalism by denying that any one religion is the sole possession of the whole truth. Different religions seem to put forward different and incompatible interpretations about the nature of ultimate reality, about the modes of divine activity, the nature and destiny of the human race.

The Jesus Prayer and Deity Mantras: The Athonite Imiaslavie Teaching and Tibetan Visualization Practices

The purpose of this paper is to offer a comparative exploration of the imiaslavie movement ("the worship of the name") that developed on Mount Athos in the years preceding World War I, and the kind of visualization practices that are common in some currents of Tibetan Buddhism, such as the Nyingma school. The first part of this paper will situate the imiaslavie movement within the broader context of Athonite practice, mapping the continuity of this peculiar phenomenon with earlier practices in Eastern Christian monasticism such as Evagrian "noetic" spirituality, the Christocentric emphasis of the theology of deification, and the emergence of the Jesus prayer. This exploration of the movement's historical background will then foreground its extraordinary character, as well as the uniqueness of its theological claims and of its understanding of mental prayer in the context of the transformation of the individual. The second part of this paper will explore the theology of the Buddha-nature that undergirds different visualization practices developed and systematized by Nyingma practitioners within Tibetan Buddhism; particular attention will be given to Jamgön Kongtrul's brief nineteenth-century treatise Creation and Completion, a work mapping one's inner journey toward identification with different deities and tantric figures who are eventually revealed to be manifestations of awakening. The last part of this paper will underscore the points of contact, but also the conceptual and practical differences between these two different approaches, underscoring their distinctive assumptions about soteriology, anthropology, and the nature of ultimate reality.

Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality. By MaxTegmark. New York: Vintage Paperbacks, 2015. 432 pages. Paperback $17.00.

Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality. By MaxTegmark. New York: Vintage Paperbacks, 2015. 432 pages. Paperback $17.00.

NATURALISM AND THEISM

This article makes a case for theism by comparing it to naturalism. It examines the conflict between the two world-views, the nature of ultimate reality, the limits of science, the status of the universe, the role of faith in shaping beliefs, and how we account for human rationality. It concludes that naturalism is fatally flawed and that theism provides a more coherent explanation for human rationality and consciousness, the intelligibility of the universe and the existence of immaterial information.

“That Is Why The Buddha Laughs”: Apophasis, Buddhist Practice, and the Paradox of Language

This essay arose from a collaborative project exploring the meaning of apophatic discourse in different religious traditions. I focus on the paradox of language as both liberating and ensnaring that resonates across the great diversity and heterogeneity of Buddhist traditions. Apophatic discourse is a widespread response to this paradox, as it is motivated by a recognition of the limits of words and concepts even as it seeks to point to that which is beyond these limits. The questions of whether there is a nonconceptual reality beyond the limits of words and concepts, and if so, what it might be, and why, precisely, language and reason are incapable of articulating nonconceptual reality, and what the role of language might be in leading beyond itself, are all sources of considerable debate among Buddhist thinkers. What is shared by figures with different responses to these questions is an understanding of apophasis as a form of Buddhist practice. The aim of Buddhist apophatic practice is to disrupt our natural linguistic attitude, in which we are beguiled by language, presupposing that our words and concepts somehow correspond with the ultimate nature of reality. How is apophatic discourse—enacting an awareness of the limits of language—meaningful if it cannot actually describe that which it is about? Buddhist apophatic discourses, such as ontological doctrines of ineffability, negations, and silence, are not simply pointing to ultimate reality, but are meaningful as transformative practices in the context of an interpretive community with shared soteriological goals and doctrines. Thus, even as apophatic discourse is ever transcending positive claims, it depends on kataphatic discourse to have any specific meaning.

Concept of Ultimate Reality in Philosophy of Mullā Sadrā and Upaniṣads: A Comparative Study

The purpose of the present project is to study the Upaniṣads and Mullā Sadrā as expounders of mystical philosophy dealing with the question of the nature of Ultimate Reality and its concomitant issues. To be more specific, this study is an examination focused on the metaphysical theories propounded by them. The mystical and philosophical systems constructed by Upaniṣads and Mullā Sadrā are often viewed as being representative of absolutism found within their respective traditions. The striking differences generally perceived between aspects of Hinduism and Islām have, however, somewhat prevented scholars to develop interest in the comparison of philosophies rooted in these two philosophical traditions. This study will be exploring the systems of these influential traditions to ascertain if this approach is true.

Interspiritual Theology as a Radical Potential for New Vistas in Theological Thought

Abstract Is a transreligious theology possible? A theology that is not beholden to any particular religious tradition? If so, what would it be? What would it look like? How would it be done? Perhaps more importantly, why would it be done? That is, whom would it be for? Is it a part of a larger (and perhaps privileged) pursuit of human philosophical wisdom and progress? Or are there real world communities in need of such a thing? Could it be helpful to religious traditions themselves? These are some of the questions pursued here. In response, I offer the possibility of an “interspiritual theology,” a theology that opens widely—in the spirit of exploration and hypothesis—to such questions, while aiming not to lose the heart of the theological endeavor, articulated by Evagrius of Pontus as, “The one who truly prays is a theologian; the one who is a theologian, prays truly.” As one possible strand of transreligious theological thought, interspiritual theology finds resonance with contemporary academic scholars Robert Neville, Wesley Wildman, John Thatamanil, Beverly Lanzetta and the late Raimon Panikkar, as well as real-world movements on the ground springing up outside of academia. Interspiritual theology is explained as being inter-religious, interdisciplinary, pragmatic, contemplative, and prophetic. An academic endeavor that is in partnership with (but not beholden to) religious traditions, in service to spiritual communities outside of academia, in dialogue with secular sciences, partaking of transformative wisdom, and committed to the prophetic task of service to humanity and the transformation of all of its social, cultural, political, and economic structures to reflect the deep human values of dignity, equality, compassion, love and wisdom—while also pursuing the transreligious project of understanding “as fully as possible the nature of ultimate reality.”

Informational Realism

What is the ultimate nature of reality? This paper defends an answer in terms of realism (IR). It does so in three stages. First, it is shown that, within the debate about structural realism (SR), epistemic (ESR) and ontic (OSR) structural realism are reconcilable by using the methodology of the levels of abstractions. It follows that OSR is defensible from a structuralist-friendly position. Second, it is argued that OSR is also plausible, because not all related objects are logically prior to all relational structures. The relation of difference is at least as fundamental as (because constitutive of) any relata. Third, it is suggested that an ontology of structural objects for OSR can reasonably be developed in terms of objects, and that Object Oriented Programming provides a flexible and powerful methodology with which to clarify and make precise the concept of informational object. The outcome is realism, the view that the world is the totality of objects dynamically interacting with each other.

Does a Table Have Buddha-Nature?: A Moment of Yes and No. Answer! But Not in Words or Signs! A Response to Mark Siderits

Siderits argues that Nāgārjuna is not committed to the paradoxical claim that emptiness is the lack of intrinsic nature and that it is the intrinsic nature of all things, on the ground that the apparently paradoxical claims Nāgārjuna makes are simply admonitions to recuse oneself from the project of ontology. We argue that to recuse oneself from that project is to do ontology and so is no route out of paradox. We dispute Siderits' reading of several crucial passages, demonstrating that his readings are unattested in the commentarial literature and that they are implausible. Siderits argues on the basis of these readings that Candrakīrti and Nāgārjuna are not committed to paradoxes. We show that more plausible readings that are better attested in the commentarial literature do so commit them. Siderits and we agree that the ultimate nature of reality is to lack any ultimate nature. He thinks that this is consistent; we think that it is paradoxical.

Rituals in Hinduism as Related to Spirituality

Change is taking place at an unprecedented pace on our planet. The nature of the change is historically different from anything we have previously experienced. Because of the enormous destructive power now available to so many, the world is being challenged to learn how to get along or pay the consequences, which could be extremely high. As we see it, the only way to truly promote peace is for more people to dare to transform within so that they experience greater levels of inner peace. Spiritual psychology is both a branch of psychology, like child psychology and social psychology, and a system of psychology, like psychoanalysis with a set of basic postulates that provide an overarching theoretical orientation. The basic postulate in this case is the primacy of spirit defined as the principle or center of consciousness in the embodied human condition. Spiritual psychology, acknowledging the primacy of the spirit, explores its relation to the mind and the body in the person. Spiritual psychology is then the study of the unity of the spirit, the mind and the body manifest in the human context. It serves as the bridge to connect the otherwise disparate realms of personal and transpersonal, the secular and the sacred, the normal and the paranormal. Spiritual psychology shares a great deal with religious psychology and yet is very different from it. Religious psychology, as the Cambridge psychologist Thouless (1971) defined it, seeks to understand religious behavior by applying to it the psychological principles derived from the study of non-religious behavior. Spiritual psychology goes well beyond this. It seeks to understand human nature itself from the study of the spiritual aspects in our beliefs and behavior. Postulation of the primacy of spirit is the defining characteristic of spiritual psychology. Spirit (atman) in the Indian tradition is consciousnessas-such. Consequently, the study of consciousness-as-such in its relation to the thinking-mind and the knowing-brain constitutes from the Indian perspective the subject matter of spiritual psychology (Savarkar, 1964). Spiritual Psychology is the study and practice of the art and science of human evolution in consciousness. In order to fulfill this quest, it must begin by distinguishing the essence of human evolution-what does it mean to evolve? In short, it means anything in consciousness that disturbs one's peace. It also means our illusions of separation. Essentially, this surrendering and sacrificing is work that can and has been called healing, which includes healing on the physical, mental, and emotional levels in service to the deeper revelation of who we truly are as Loving, Peaceful, Compassionate and Joyful beings.There are three major schools of thought about the ultimate nature of reality, and virtually all psychological and scientific models of mind can be classified as belonging to one of these three, which are defined as follows:* Theism: is the belief in the existence of God (a supreme being or spiritual reality), an immortal soul, or any other type of deity or deities.* Atheism: is the belief in the nonexistence of God (or any type of soul or deity), which in the modem world is often expressed as the materialist hypothesis that matter is the only reality.* Agnosticism: is the belief that the question of whether or not God (or any type of soul or deity) exists either has not been or cannot be answered (Falk, 2005).Psychology in the Indian traditionIndian tradition is very pluralistic with diverse languages, religions and schools of thought that flourished on the Indian soil for millennia. Therefore, in a significant sense, it would be wrong to speak of the Indian tradition. However, in relation to psychology in general and spiritual psychology in particular, it may not be misleading to suggest that there are shared assumptions implicit among the dominant Indian traditions that provide a foundation for a meaningful theoretical exercise and discourse on spiritual psychology. …

Regarding Reality: Some Consequences of Two Incapacities

By what empirical means can a person determine whether he or she is presently awake or dreaming? Any conceivable test addressing this question, which is a special case of the classical metaphysical doubting of reality, must be statistical (for the same reason that empirical science is, as noted by Hume). Subjecting the experienced reality to any kind of statistical test (for instance, a test for bizarreness) requires, however, that a set of baseline measurements be available. In a dream, or in a simulation, any such baseline data would be vulnerable to tampering by the same processes that give rise to the experienced reality, making the outcome of a reality test impossible to trust. Moreover, standard cryptographic defenses against such tampering cannot be relied upon, because of the potentially unlimited reach of reality modification within a dream, which may range from the integrity of the verification keys to the declared outcome of the entire process. In the face of this double predicament, the rational course of action is to take reality at face value. The predicament also has some intriguing corollaries. In particular, even the most revealing insight that a person may gain into the ultimate nature of reality (for instance, by attaining enlightenment in the Buddhist sense) is ultimately unreliable, for the reasons just mentioned. At the same time, to adhere to this principle, one has to be aware of it, which may not be possible in various states of reduced or altered cognitive function such as dreaming or religious experience. Thus, a subjectively enlightened person may still lack the one truly important piece of the puzzle concerning his or her existence.

Against digital ontology

The paper argues that digital ontology (the ultimate nature of reality is digital, and the universe is a computational system equivalent to a Turing Machine) should be carefully distinguished from informational ontology (the ultimate nature of reality is structural), in order to abandon the former and retain only the latter as a promising line of research. Digital vs. analogue is a Boolean dichotomy typical of our computational paradigm, but digital and analogue are only “modes of presentation” of Being (to paraphrase Kant), that is, ways in which reality is experienced or conceptualised by an epistemic agent at a given level of abstraction. A preferable alternative is provided by an informational approach to structural realism, according to which knowledge of the world is knowledge of its structures. The most reasonable ontological commitment turns out to be in favour of an interpretation of reality as the totality of structures dynamically interacting with each other. The paper is the first part (the pars destruens) of a two-part piece of research. The pars construens, entitled “A Defence of Informational Structural Realism”, is developed in a separate article, also published in this journal.

Against Digital Ontology

The paper argues that digital ontology (the ultimate nature of reality is digital, and the universe is a computational system equivalent to a Turing Machine) should be carefully distinguished from informational ontology (the ultimate nature of reality is structural), in order to abandon the former and retain only the latter as a promising line of research. Digital vs. analogue is a Boolean dichotomy typical of our computational paradigm, but digital and analogue are only “modes of presentation” of Being (to paraphrase Kant), that is, ways in which reality is experienced or conceptualised by an epistemic agent at a given level of abstraction. A preferable alternative is provided by an informational approach to structural realism, according to which knowledge of the world is knowledge of its structures. The most reasonable ontological commitment turns out to be in favour of an interpretation of reality as the totality of structures dynamically interacting with each other. The paper is the first part (the pars destruens) of a two-part piece of research. The pars construens, entitled “A Defence of Informational Structural Realism”, is developed in a separate article, also published in this journal.