Document Type : .

Authors

• jalal paykani ¹
• kaweys sure ²

¹ Professor, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Payame Noor University, Iran

² Ph.D. in philosophy of religion, Graduate Studies Center of Payame Noor University of Iran;(Corresponding author):

Abstract

Abstract
 
Introduction:
Scientific explanations of religious experience are a serious challenge for religious experience. In the second half of the 20th century, cognitive science has involved itself with the issue of religion. Among the approaches of this knowledge, the conceptual metaphor approach of Lakoff and Johnson has a special place; Especially the claim of the thinkers of this field that the mind is basically physical and abstract concepts are mostly metaphorical is a very serious challenge for religious experience. In examining the critical view of the approach of conceptual metaphors, we will notice the results that are in favor of the approach of religious experience; Due to the religious experience, the generalization and convergence of the central metaphor is degraded. On the other hand, religious experience makes us believe that even with lived experience, religious matters are not basic or objective categories that do not require metaphors. On the other hand, by examining the religious experience, we are convinced to believe that man, as a being who has the ability to perceive metaphysical matters, inevitably has a non-physical essence; Because the understanding of metaphysical matters requires dimensions beyond the physical dimension. In this research, the aim is to examine the view of this approach to religious experience and against those who defend religious experience.
 
Method and material
The research was done with descriptive research method. First, conceptual metaphors have been examined with the approach of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, and then known religious experiences have been discussed. In the next step, a critical look at conceptual metaphors for religious experience and possible answers from philosophers of religion is included.
The view of the metaphor-oriented approach in science or cognitive sciences is an experimental view, the aim of which is to deal with the cognitive aspect of language. The mentioned approach in cognitive linguistics is also called empirical realism. The study course of this linguistic approach is interdisciplinary; In this way, by studying the language, he intends to respond to the ontological and epistemological developments in dealing with the relationship between religious experience and language. If the basis of this approach is the above view, this view in dealing with religious experience will lead to a multi-directional interaction, which in the view of philosophers and thinkers, the metaphor-oriented approach will end in physical experience and physicality view. In this chapter, while dealing with the main and secondary issues, the author's main goal, which is to investigate the role of conceptual metaphors in explaining religious knowledge, is clarified.
 
Result and Discussion:
The results of this research indicate that conceptual metaphors are not 100% applicable to the issue of experience and religious experiences and the language of reporting the aforementioned experiences, and since there are possibilities of disconfirming the rule of metaphorical language, it cannot be accepted. Although the main representatives of conceptual metaphors approach believe that this approach (metaphor-based approach) has self-evident principles, but on the other hand, they do not know it completely and without exception that this self-sewing issue is self-evident and indisputable.
 
Conclusion:
It does not seem that the philosophers of the metaphor-oriented approach are in the direction of developing a better interaction between science and religion, or that they want to consider the interaction between conceptual metaphors in scientific knowledge and the problem of religious experience. ; Rather, with the attitude that especially the philosophers of the metaphor-oriented approach have taken, they intend to show that the examples of knowledge of religious experience are abstract things that the human mind simulates on the basis of empirical and tangible things. And in a sense, religious experiences are made from empirical facts, and for this purpose, the mind attributes imaginary schemas from physical objects to metaphysical and extrasensory matters; At the same time, this relationship is completely virtual and metaphorical. Based on the ontological results of this approach, it cannot be assumed that the religious experience indicates and observes the truth in recognizing the examples of religion, and hence the language that is used to give meaning to religious propositions. It has been purely unreal and virtual.
 
 

Keywords

• Conceptual metaphors
• cognitive science
• physicality
• religious experience