Egozentrizität, Mystik und christlicher Glaube: Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Ernst Tugendhat

Abstract

The philosopher Ernst Tugendhat interprets mysticism as a legitimate consequence of egocentricity. For him mysticism is not a natural phenomenon, but one which is intentionally sought and produced to allow the individual to withdraw from his or her concrete circumstances. Thus mysticism invites us to renounce and to retract desires, while religion invites us to project desires and to transform our circumstances. For Tugendhat, religion, especially in its theistic forms, is a mistake, whereas mysticism, which needs no God(s), is acceptable. A fuller anthropology, however, would accept that egocentricity can have very ambiguous consequences. Which ones are legitimate, and on what grounds? Moreover there is not just one single or general type of mysticism. So which type is helpful? From where does the bifurcation between mysticism and religion derive? Why, even leaving aside the fact that renunciation and transformation are not necessarily opposites, should renunciation and receding be regarded as more adequate than transformation? Finally, with regard to Christianity, Christian faith is Trinitarian, not theistic, and it therefore transcends traditional religious and philosophical alternatives, even that between religion and mysticism.