Kant and Mysticism: Critique as the Experience of Baring All in Reason's Light(Contemporary Studies in Idealism)

What is happening when someone has a mystical experience, such as “feeling at one with the universe” or “hearing God’s voice?” Does philosophy provide tools for assessing such claims? Which claims can be dismissed as delusions and which ones convey genuine truths that might be universally meaningful? Valuable insights into such pressing questions can be found in the writings of Immanuel Kant, though few philosophical commentators have appreciated the implications beyond his famous “Copernican hypothesis.” In Kant and Mysticism, Stephen R. Palmquist corrects this skewed view of Kant once and for all. Beginning with a detailed analysis of Kant’s 1766 work Dreams of a Spirit-Seer, Palmquist demonstrates that in Dreams Kant first discovers and explains his plan to write a new, “critical” philosophy that will revolutionize metaphysics by laying bare the limits of human reason. Palmquist shows how the same metaphorical relationship—between reason’s dreams (metaphysics) and sensibility’s dreams (mysticism)—permeates Kant’s mature writings. Clarifying how Kant’s final (unfinished) book, Opus Postumum, completes this dual project, Palmquist explains how the “critical mysticism” entailed by Kant’s position has profound implications for contemporary understandings of religious and mystical experience, both by religious individuals and by philosophers seeking to understand such experiences.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction: The Problem of Mystical Experience in Kant Part I Swedenborg’s Influence on Kant’s Critical Awakening Chapter 1 — The Copernican Hypothesis as the Key to Kant’s Awakening from Dogmatic Slumber Chapter 2 — The Impact of Swedenborg’s Mysticism on Kant’s Metaphysical Dreams Chapter 3 — Kant’s Awakening: The Copernican Hypothesis as the Key to Critical Mysticism Chapter 4 — Kant’s Metaphysical Dream: A System of Critical Philosophy Part II Kant’s Critical Philosophy as a Critique of Mysticism Chapter 5 — Does Mystical Experience Always Prompt Delirium? Chapter 6 — Kant’s Critique of Delirious Mysticism Chapter 7 — Critical Mysticism as Immediate Experience of the Moral Chapter 8 — Key Metaphors Guiding Kant’s Critical Mysticism Part III The Opus Postumum as an Experiment in Critical Mysticism Chapter 9 — Can the Original (Threefold) Synthesis Be Consciously Experienced? Chapter 10 — The Categorical Imperative as the Voice of God Chapter 11 — Matter’s Living Force

About the Author :
Stephen R. Palmquist is professor of religion and philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Review :
“Palmquist … is to be applauded for his willingness to challenge conventional accounts of the development of Kant’s Critical philosophy and broaden the scope of Kant interpretation in this and other works.” - J. Colin McQuillan, St. Mary’s University “Kant and Mysticism lucidly unfolds a significant alternative to the standard interpretations of Dreams [of a Spirit-Seer] and, more generally, mysticism in Kant’s philosophy. It is an eloquent and nuanced reading of the conceptual development of Kant’s Critical philosophy in its historical context and Kant’s thinking of problems of experience, intuition and the religious that will become an essential reference for future scholarship.” - Eric S. Nelson, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology “The whole book is a bold attempt to overturn and dismantle the standard interpretation (namely, that Kant is primarily an empirical philosopher, the all-destroyer of metaphysics and a reducer of religion to morality) and its frown on any form of mysticism in Kant whatsoever.” - Prof. Chris L. Firestone, Trinity International University Kant and Mysticismdoes a good job of capturing what is mystical in Kant, pushing some key Kantian themes toward the mystical while seemingly preserving their spirit. . . . Palmquist thus helps us to see a Kant whose concern with the limits of knowledge goes beyond developing a metaphysics, and whose concern with religion goes beyond grafting doctrines onto morality. . . . Palmquist’s work deserves praise and attention for drawing together underutilized parts of Kant’s work in an illuminating way. Kant’s Dreams of a Spirit-Seer, his early sardonic critique of the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, is often taken as an odd and unimportant episode in the development of Kant’s critical philosophy. But Stephen R. Palmquist convincingly shows that Kant was significantly influenced by Swedenborg’s writings, borrowing elements of epistemology, ethics, and religious thinking from Swedenborg. Palmquist’s work also profoundly deepens our understanding of the extent to which a mysticism of reason lies at the heart of Kant’s whole critical philosophy. The term "mysticism" is generally regarded as having negative connotations for Kant. Thus, for example, references to Kant’s interest in K.A. Wilmans’ dissertation on this topic are often one-sided. Consequently, works clarifying Kant’s actual relation to mysticism are most welcome. In view of the widespread disregard for Kant’s central questions, this new book is of the highest importance, especially its last chapter, on the mystical implications of Kant’s Opus Postumum. Palmquist's holistic and perspectival interpretation offers a provocative way to rethink Kant's arguments and their implications.