Mysticism and Modernity
As part of its support for research of "Key Themes in the Humanities," the Volkswagen Foundation in Hanover has awarded faculty from Siegen University in Germany and the University of Florida in Gainesville a three-year grant for collaborative research on the topic, "Mysticism and Modernity". The grant provides assistance to the primary investigators in the form of graduate student and post-doctoral stipends, to begin in Fall, 2003. We are pleased that Dr. Anna Mayer has joined the project as the post-doctoral fellow. For the German projects please consult Mystik und Moderne.
General Scope of the Project.
It is the assumption of the primary investigators that the social,
cultural,
and intellectual needs that have given rise to various forms of
mysticism
in the past have continued to exist in the modern era. The purpose of
the
research program is to explore how these enduring needs have continued
to show themselves in the post-Cartesian era. The recipient of the
Florida
post-doctoral grant will investigate the ways in
which they exist in twentieth-century or contemporary
natural
science, technology, or medicine.
For the purpose of the grant the
mystical
drive is assumed to involve characteristics such as the following to
various
degrees and in various combinations:
1. The longing for unity as
a motivating telos. Unity here is understood both in the sense of a
harmony
of disparate parts and of the union between subject and object.
2. Recognition of a
distinction
between empirical and experiential encounters, both of which can be
articulated.
3. An acknowledgment of
incompleteness
in the striving for perfect reality.
4. An awareness of a
transcendent
dimension that constrains human experience.
5. A striving for
transformation.
6. On occasion an
anti-institutional
tendency.
Examples.
The following examples of areas for specific research topics are
offered
solely to illustrate the kinds of general interests sought for
in
applications:
Religious language and metaphor in
natural scientific, technological, or medical practice.
Scientific, technological, or
medical
holy grails.
The pursuit of holism in science,
technology, or medicine.
Attitudes about moments of
scientific
or technological discovery.
Motivations to alternative science.
Personnel:
Principal
Investigators
University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of History Gainesville, FL