[MD] Experience, essentialism, physicalism

[Scott Roberts]

Larz,

Larz said:
What's your understanding of Aurobindo's "Psychic Being" and "Supermind"?

Scott:
Actually, it's been a while since I read or read about Aurobindo. In any 
case, all I can do with this sort of thing is take seriously that Aurobindo 
has insight that I don't, and NOT try to put it into my limited conceptual 
categories. I just acknowledge that there is something to say, that is, that 
the supernatural is real, and what that implies for our everyday 
consciousness. Of course part of the problem is that different mystics say 
different things, or at least use different vocabularies.

Larz asked:
 Do you know of any western equivalent/s/?

Scott:
There's Rudolf Steiner, but I would recommend Georg Kuhlewind's more 
contemporary discussion, for example in his *Stages of Consciousness* and 
*The Logos-Structure of the World*. Merrell-Wolff is a Westerner of course, 
which is one reason I find him especially valuable. Although he takes a lot 
of his vocabulary from the Vedanta, he discusses it all in terms of Western 
philosophy and his own mystical experience.

Larz continued:
  DQ of the MOQ, perhaps?

Scott:
Not in my opinion, but I'm more or less a MOQ dissident. It's not that I 
reject DQ, just find that that the way Pirsig handles the relation between 
DQ and SQ unsatisfactory. I prefer what Nishida calls the logic of 
contradictory identity (LCI), for more on which see
http://www2.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/4798.html

- Scott