Thickening description: towards an expanded conception of philosophy of religion

This article presents a new approach to understanding ritual: embodied world construction. Informed by phenomenology and a philosophy of embodiment, this approach argues that rituals can (re)shape the structure of an individual's perceptual world. Ritual participation transforms how the world appears for an individual through the inculcation of new perceptual habits, enabling the perception of objects and properties which could not previously be apprehended. This theory is then applied to two case studies from an existing ethnographic study of North American evangelicalism, indicating how the theory of embodied world construction can shed new light on how individuals are shaped by ritual practice.

“…21.To this end, I support Mikel Burley's argument that philosophers of religion would benefit by drawing upon existing ethnographic studies of religion in their work (Burley (2018), 11).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 68%

Embodied world construction: a phenomenology of ritual

Williams

2023

“…Burley uses ethnographic fieldwork to ground his philosophy. Inspired by Clifford Geertz (1973) he promotes 'a thickly descriptive philosophy of religion' as a way to acknowledge the diverse forms of religions within and across traditions, that is, a 'radical plurality' of perspectives, worldviews, or 'ways of being human' as he wrote elsewhere (Burley 2020, 1; see also Burley 2018). I take a slightly different approach as diversity in any culture is one of the guiding features in anthropology.…”

Section: Conclusion: Axé As Cornerstone Of Candomblémentioning

confidence: 99%

Axé as the cornerstone of Candomblé philosophy and its significance for an understanding of well-being (bem estar)

Schmidt

2024

According to Candomblé, axé is present in every living being and is necessary to life. To develop and maintain a sense of well-being, one must maintain a balanced level of axé which is linked to a reciprocal relationship between human beings and orixás (African deities). This article will explore the link between the spiritual force axé and well-being (bem estar) within Candomblé philosophy. Starting with explaining axé within the context of Candomblé and its concept of personhood, the article will reflect in the latter part on the concept of well-being from the perspective of axé and put forward an argument for the inclusion of Candomblé in philosophy of religion.

“…It is conceptual coherence with a given set of criteria that matters, rather than universal finalizable certainties. A concise and responsible account of an idea, then, requires what Burley (2018) and Knepper (2013) have called ‘thick description’, specifically at the philosophical level: one must clarify the context as fully as possible. This thickly described version of philosophical ideas, theories or problems can be seen as a the triangulation of ‘cultural manifolds’ (Sivin (2005), (2011) ) into a particular pattern of relations (e.g.…”

Section: Philosophical Truths On a Global Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

‘The view from above’: a theory of comparative philosophy

Frazier

2019

What if doing philosophy across cultures is always implicitly a matter of metaphilosophy – of articulating more clearly the nature of philosophy itself? What if it forces us to ‘stand back’ hermeneutically and map out a ‘view from above’ of the underlying fabric of ideas – in their constitutive concepts, their relations to other ways of thinking, and their potential to be configured in alternative fascinating and fruitful ways?This article incorporates existing approaches to comparative philosophy within a single scheme of complementary philosophical activities, and a single overarching metaphilosophical project. These approaches are (1) ‘archival’ (exploring parallel but separate philosophical traditions), (2) ‘equivalentist’ (comparing traditions in terms of analogies and contrasts), and (3) ‘problem-solving’ (using multiple traditions to provide philosophical solutions). I situate these within (4) the overarching hermeneutic project of ‘mapping’ concepts and their possibilities. This entails the theory that philosophies drawing on multiple perspectives are always implicitly engaged in mapping out the underlying eidetic structure upon which philosophy does its work, and charting the conceptual possibilities surrounding any idea.