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.ISBN : 9780367647469 Cover Endorsement Page Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Contributors Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Is meditation philosophy? Part I Meditation and philosophy Chapter 1 Skeptical doubts about meditation as philosophy Chapter 2 The philosophy of meditation: The spoken Tao Chapter 3 Meditation and the paradox of self-consciousness Chapter 4 The relation between meditation and analytic philosophy Chapter 5 Engaging metacognitive practices: On the uses (and possible abuse) of meditation in philosophy Chapter 6 Differences and interaction between meditative cultivation and philosophical thought/insight in early and Theravāda Buddhism Chapter 7 The necessity of meditation in Upaniṣadic turīya and Yogācāra amala vijñana Part II Meditation and epistemology Chapter 8 Meditation, nonconceptuality, and the reflexive structure of consciousness Chapter 9 The experience of presence: Meditation and the nature of consciousness Chapter 10 Meditation as cultivating knowledge-how Chapter 11 How meditation changes the brain: A neurophilosophical and pragmatic account Chapter 12 How a philosophy of meditation can explore the deep connections between mindfulness and contemplative wisdom Chapter 13 Psychedelics and meditation: A neurophilosophical perspective Part III Meditation and metaphysics Chapter 14 Philosophy without a philosopher: Anātman as a special case of dependent arising Chapter 15 Meditative experience and the plasticity of self-experience Chapter 16 The self: What does mindfulness meditation reveal about it? Chapter 17 Control, anxiety, and the progressive detachment from the self Part IV Meditation and values Chapter 18 Is there a Global Norm in favor of Global Attentiveness? Chapter 19 Meditation in the context of a naturalized eudaimonic Buddhism Part V Meditation and phenomenology Chapter 20 The phenomenology of meditation: An Advaita approach Chapter 21 What is meditation good for?: Reflections on the use of meditation in the study of consciousness Chapter 22 Bare attention, dereification, and meta-awareness in mindfulness: A phenomenological critique Chapter 23 Consciousness, content, and cognitive attenuation: A neurophenomenological perspective Part VI Meditation in Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions Chapter 24 Prosochê as Stoic mindfulness Chapter 25 The philosophical presuppositions of Christian meditation: Theo-philosophical anthropology and its corresponding participatory ontology Chapter 26 The end of man: Philosophical consummation in Jewish meditative tradition Index "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