Page No.30-39
Walter Renner*, Panch. Ramalingam**
Pan-European University Bratislava, Slovak Republic*, Pondicherry University
Puducherry, India**
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In the earlier paper “Self-Evident Spiritual Experience and Empirical Psychology” we
made an attempt to link theological consideration and psychological methodology;
suggestions were developed which could enable future researchers to apply Popper’s
critical rationalism to the study of reports of self-evident religious or spiritual experiences.
These suggestions were based on criteria of falsifiability which are derived from
theological literature. In the present paper intended to extend previous considerations
about religious or spiritual self-evident experience in three respects: First, as Yee pointed
to an empirical continuum, ranging from “hard” science to merely hermeneutic methods.
Quite correctly she criticized an understanding of Popper’s Critical Rationalism which
would allow applying it only to the natural sciences. The present paper developed Yee’s
suggestions further by suggesting criteria according to which religious or spiritual selfevident experience can be examined with respect to its falsifiability. Secondly, the present paper intended to adapt Swinburne’s and Davis’ theological arguments towards the reality
of religious experiences to the methodological framework of empirical psychology. Last
but not least, we included the cultural dimension: in times of globalization, it has become
a common phenomenon for the “East” to learn from the “West”. These suggestions are
supported by the Indian point of view on self-evident spiritual experiences. In this respect,
Western scientific methodology is expected to benefit from Eastern philosophy of science..
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