[Asec] SoPheRE 2024| CFA | Exploratory Workshop "Experience and Non-Objects"

[Olga Louchakova-Schwartz]

*Exploratory workshop of the Society for the Phenomenology of Religious
Experience*

*Call for Abstracts*

October 28-30, 2024, at the Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center
<https://www.duq.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/simon-silverman-phenomenology-center/index.php>,
Duquesne University, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania



Confirmed Speakers: Michael Barber (St. Louis University), Michel Bitbol
(CNRS, Paris), Peter Costello (Providence College), Neal DeRoo (Institute
for Christian Studies, Canada), Crina Gschwandtner (Fordham University),
Graham Harman (UCLA), Olga Louchakova-Schwartz (UC Davis), Martin Nitsche
(Institute of Philosophy, Prague), Felix O’Murchadha (University of Galway)

*Experience and Non-Objects: Towards a Phenomenology of Indiscernibility*



For a long time, the objectlessness of religious experience has been a
ground for denial of its existence. Yet, studies in phenomenology show
these forms of experience exist, and are characterized by the intuition of
the invisible. If such forms of experience are actual, the possibility of
object-less perception and corresponding judgment can be extended toward
experience in sciences. Specifically, this concerns the unobservable or
indiscernible in quantum mechanics or quantum chemistry, or, to a lesser
degree, the sciences of the brain.

In this invited workshop, we discuss relationships between
the phenomenology of ordinary object-based everyday experience, and
interesting, often religious, experiences which create a possibility for
judgment (knowledge) of the invisible.  There are many accounts of the role
of such experiences that can be drawn upon. For example,  under LSD, Carlo
Rovelli had an experience that led him to formulate relational quantum
mechanics. Another, dream experience of Mendeleev, provided an
insight that led him to the development of the Periodical Table of
Elements. Einstein is known to let his mind meander in the realm of
imagination to crystallize his concepts. The recent Nobel Prize Winner,
Anton Zielinger, stresses the role of imagination in quantum theorizing.

True to Husserl’s view of metaphysics as the future task of phenomenology
and drawing on both phenomenological and post-phenomenological perspectives
and in dialogue with other contemporary philosophical approaches, the
workshop will set out a perspective on how (to put it much too briefly) we
can think the concept of reality containing both objects and non-objects,
without reducing one to the other. Finally, we will also discuss how and if
the concept of unified reality, which is theistic in its origin,
participates in the object-less intuitions.

We still have space for submissions. The sphere of our interest rotates
around the question of how and if the ego can “appresent” non-objects.
Disruptions of the everyday in meditation or the religious-spiritual
practices of embodied inwardness (e.g., in Tantra,  Vedanta, the Prayer of
the Heart, or other systems of religious experience) give us repetitive,
predictable experiences, but what gives itself in these experiences?  And
are these intuitions, presentations, or appresentations of the invisible?
If there is a symmetry between the eidetics of embodied inwardness  and
quantum concepts, what are conditions of possibility for this symmetry? Do
the opposing arrows of time, multidimensionality of space, and other
non-ordinary relationships, which manifest in these experiences, genuinely
exist? Do such experiences encompass the notion of non-objects?  How can
they be connected with eidetic intuition of quantum indiscernibles (in a
Leibnitzian sense)? What are the limits of mereology or logic in these ana
lyses? "In the experience of embodied inwardness, how does the ego choose
which aspect of passivity, the objects or non-objects, to bring into
awareness? And ultimately: what is the sphere of validity for the theory of
objects in confrontation with the invisible or indiscernible? We seek
solutions from phenomenology of consciousness in its different forms:
descriptive, eidetic, formal ontological, genetic, transcendental, or,
lately, realistic, its mereology, topology, and apophansis, its provinces
of meaning, in how they contribute to our conceptual picture of the world.

Around this broad spectrum of interconnected themes, approximately ten
talks will be accepted.  Accepted talks and the rest of the submissions
will be considered for publication in a topical issue of Frontiers.
Selectively, we will provide support with applications for fee waivers. To
be considered, please send a 300-word abstract to workshop2024 at sophere.org.
The mailbox is set for automated responses, so please check your spam
folder if you do not receive a response. The deadline for submissions is
June 15.  Acceptance notices will be sent out by August 15, 2024. We will
accept original philosophical research reports,  hypotheses and theory,
interpretive reviews, perspectives, case studies, reflections on method,
and proposed research protocols.

*Organizers:*

Olga Louchakova-Schwartz (for questions, email olouch at ucdavis.edu)

Martin Nitsche

Felix O’Murchadha

Jeff McCurry (Duquesne University)



https://sophere.org/upcoming-events-2024/non-objects-cfa-2024/

-- 
Olga Louchakova-Schwartz, MD, PhD,
Clinical Professor, UC Davis School of Medicine
Professor of Philosophy of Religion, Hult International Business School
Professor Emerita, Sofia University
Adjunct Lecturer, Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley
President, Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience
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