Routledge Handbook on the Philosophy of Meditation (Routledge Handbooks)

This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of the state of the field of the philosophy of meditation and engages primarily in the philosophical assessment of the merits of meditation practices. This Handbook unites novel and original scholarship from 28 leading Asian and Western philosophers, scientists, theologians, and other scholars on the philosophical assessment of meditation. It critically assesses the conceptual and empirical validity of meditation, its philosophical implications, its legitimacy as a phenomenological research tool, its potential value as an aid to neuroscience research, its many practical benefits, and, among other considerations, its possibly misleading interpretations, applications, and consequences. Following the introduction by the editor, the Handbook's chapters are organized in six parts: - Meditation and philosophy - Meditation and epistemology - Meditation and metaphysics - Meditation and values - Meditation and phenomenology - Meditation in Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions A distinctive, timely, and invaluable reference work, it marks the emergence of a new discipline therein, the philosophy of meditation. The book will be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience in the fields of philosophy, meditation, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, theology, and Asian and Western philosophy. It will serve as the textbook in any philosophy course on meditation, and as secondary reading in courses in philosophy of mind, consciousness, selfhood/personhood, metaphysics, or phenomenology, thereby helping to restore philosophy as a way of life. Cover 1 Endorsement Page 2 Half Title 4 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Dedication 8 Table of Contents 12 Contributors 15 Foreword 22 Preface 25 Acknowledgments 30 Introduction: Is meditation philosophy? 34 Part I Meditation and philosophy 60 Chapter 1 Skeptical doubts about meditation as philosophy 62 Chapter 2 The philosophy of meditation: The spoken Tao 79 Chapter 3 Meditation and the paradox of self-consciousness 103 Chapter 4 The relation between meditation and analytic philosophy 111 Chapter 5 Engaging metacognitive practices: On the uses (and possible abuse) of meditation in philosophy 124 Chapter 6 Differences and interaction between meditative cultivation and philosophical thought/insight in early and Theravāda Buddhism 138 Chapter 7 The necessity of meditation in Upaniṣadic turīya and Yogācāra amala vijñana 154 Part II Meditation and epistemology 168 Chapter 8 Meditation, nonconceptuality, and the reflexive structure of consciousness 170 Chapter 9 The experience of presence: Meditation and the nature of consciousness 183 Chapter 10 Meditation as cultivating knowledge-how 194 Chapter 11 How meditation changes the brain: A neurophilosophical and pragmatic account 207 Chapter 12 How a philosophy of meditation can explore the deep connections between mindfulness and contemplative wisdom 225 Chapter 13 Psychedelics and meditation: A neurophilosophical perspective 242 Part III Meditation and metaphysics 258 Chapter 14 Philosophy without a philosopher: Anātman as a special case of dependent arising 260 Chapter 15 Meditative experience and the plasticity of self-experience 274 Chapter 16 The self: What does mindfulness meditation reveal about it? 289 Chapter 17 Control, anxiety, and the progressive detachment from the self 302 Part IV Meditation and values 316 Chapter 18 Is there a Global Norm in favor of Global Attentiveness? 318 Chapter 19 Meditation in the context of a naturalized eudaimonic Buddhism 330 Part V Meditation and phenomenology 344 Chapter 20 The phenomenology of meditation: An Advaita approach 346 Chapter 21 What is meditation good for?: Reflections on the use of meditation in the study of consciousness 360 Chapter 22 Bare attention, dereification, and meta-awareness in mindfulness: A phenomenological critique 374 Chapter 23 Consciousness, content, and cognitive attenuation: A neurophenomenological perspective 387 Part VI Meditation in Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions 402 Chapter 24 Prosochê as Stoic mindfulness 404 Chapter 25 The philosophical presuppositions of Christian meditation: Theo-philosophical anthropology and its corresponding participatory ontology 416 Chapter 26 The end of man: Philosophical consummation in Jewish meditative tradition 425 Index 438 "This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of the state of the field of the philosophy of meditation and engage primarily in the philosophical assessment of the merits of meditation practices. This Handbook unites novel and original scholarship from 28 leading Asian and Western philosophers, scientists, theologians and other scholars on the philosophical assessment of meditation. It critically assesses the conceptual and empirical validity of meditation, its philosophical implications, its legitimacy as a phenomenological research tool, its potential value as an aid to neuroscience research, its many practical benefits, and, among other considerations, its possibly misleading interpretations, applications, and consequences. Following the introduction by the editor, the handbook's chapters are organised in six parts: Meditation and philosophy Meditation and epistemology Meditation and metaphysics Meditation and values Meditation and phenomenology Meditation in Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions A distinctive, timely, and invaluable reference work, it marks the emergence of a new discipline therein, the philosophy of meditation. The book will be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience in the fields of philosophy, meditation, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, theology, Asian and Western Philosophy. It will serve as the textbook in any philosophy course on meditation, and as secondary reading in courses in philosophy of mind, consciousness, selfhood/personhood, metaphysics, or phenomenology, thereby helping to restore philosophy as a way of life"-- Provided by publisher