A Cross-Cultural Defense of the Epistemic Value of Mystical Experience

Sri Ramakrishna's mystical testimony strengthens the case for taking mystical experiences as veridical. The chapter argues that his views support Robert Oakes's position that self-authenticating experiences of God are possible. It also uses Sri Ramakrishna's teachings to defend the argument from experience—the claim that God's existence can reasonably be inferred from the testimony of those who report experiencing Him. The author contends that this approach addresses two major objections to that argument: the lack of adequate cross-checkability and the problem of conflicting claims among different religious traditions.

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Abstract

This chapter explores how Sri Ramakrishna’s mystical testimony and teachings enrich contemporary analytic debates about the epistemic value of mystical experience. These debates center on a key question: are we warranted in taking mystical experiences—either our own or those of others—to be veridical? After briefly delineating Sri Ramakrishna’s views on the scope of theological reason, Maharaj argues that Sri Ramakrishna’s mystical testimony lends strong support to the philosopher Robert Oakes’s position that self-authenticating experiences of God are possible. The remainder of the chapter focuses on the argument from experience, the argument that it is reasonable to infer God’s existence from the testimony of people claiming to have experienced Him. Maharaj draws on Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings and mystical testimony in order to bolster contemporary philosophical defenses of the argument from experience. He contends, moreover, that Sri Ramakrishna’s distinctive approach helps defuse two serious objections to the argument from experience: namely, lack of adequate cross-checkability and the conflicting claims objection.