후기비트겐슈타인의 관점에서 본 종교경험

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a understanding of religious experience from a later Wittgenstein perspective. In oder to develop this thesis, the deep epistemological dichotomy between foundationalism and anti/non foundationalism is a central issue in religious experience. As Richard Bernstein defines, foundationalism means “the effort to achieve an undistorted contact between the mirror of the mind and reality,” and anti/non foundationalism means “the basic conviction that when we turn to the examination of those concepts, we are forced to recognized that in the final analysis all such rationality, truth, reality, right, the good, or norms must be as relative to a specific conceptual scheme, theoretical framework, paradigm, form of life, society or culture.” Given these basic definitions of foundationalism and anti/non foundationalism, the interpretations of religious experience can be explained into two realms. One is that religious experience can be understood as a inner or private experience of believer. This presupposes religious experience as supernatural phenomenon. The other is that religious experience can be understood as a rational or factual phenomenon. This experience should be met the criteria of truthclaims, and thus all experience included religious experience should be factual statements because of correspondent view of truth. However, these two interpretations takes two epistemological stances of foundationalism and anti/non foundationalism as insufficient conditions of religious experience. In this reason, a later Wittgenstein philosophy for developing religious experience can be considered as a alternative way. The religious experience of a later Wittgenstein perspective, which rooted in anti/non foundational epistemology, discusses two meanings. First, the later Wittgenstein philosophy defines religious experience as the notion of cultural-linguistic discourse. In this discourse, experience is not the primary element but culture or language is the primary element. Second, the later Wittgenstein philosophy means it as the notion of intratextuality. This implies that a priori text determines our experience. As a result, the religious experience from a later Wittgenstein perspective can be understood as a public, cultural and linguistic. Therefore, the later Wittgenstein experience of religion confirms that a priori experience of culture and language determines religious experience.