"Transcendental perspectivism" is a philosophy which was written up by someone in Germany (Mr. Werner Krieglstein) and is touted by some people to be superior to other philosophies. We can imply that according to them it has benefits that are not found in simpler ideas such humanism, the golden rule and so on.
Transcendental perspectivism is an obscure philosophy (just 8000 results in Google, many of them being insignificant or unrelated, and only 6 mentions of his manifesto) with most likely a handful of followers/believers/fans around the world.
From Wikipedia:
I respect people's desires to think and write about philosophy but it is not something I'm interested in, other than a philosophy's practical benefits. I have many questions about this philosophy and I would like to use this thread to look at it critically. One reason for doing this critique is the discrimination experienced by non-believers of this philosophy (see the "Other comments" section at the bottom). This is my main question in this post:Transcendental perspectivism is a hybrid philosophy developed by German-born philosopher, Professor Werner Krieglstein. A blending of Friedrich Nietzsche's Perspectivism and the utopian ideals of the Transcendentalism movement, Transcendental Perspectivism challenges Nietzsche's claim that there are no absolute truths while fully accepting his observation that all truth can only be known in the context of one's own perception. This is accomplished through an appreciation of the emotional relationship between two perceptions (the "perceiver" and the "other").
Suppose we have a group of 100 Transcendental perspectivists and they are working together to solve various problems or just living life and interacting with each other in whatever way.
How is this group of Transcendental perspectivists superior in any way to a group of people who simply believe in the golden rule, humanism or other simple philosophies and ways of life? What would the key differences be?
I'm talking about net practical benefits of believing in such a philosophy.
Mr. Werner Krieglstein is a human being like the rest of us and may have made mistakes so his ideas should not be believed to be perfect, neither should he be believed to be some kind of spiritual leader, guru or master.
Analysis of the Manifesto
There are 11 points in the manifesto of this philosophy listed on the Wikipedia page. Most of them are nothing special and my main point is that they either do not tell us anything new. Most of them have no connection with the philosophy's core definition ("truth can only be known in the context of one's own perception"). People have known about many of these rules since a long time. They are basically derived from common sense or have existed before.
"Respect people of varying beliefs." - nothing special. Everyone agrees and has known this since a long time and the same is true for the following:1. Transcendental Perspectivism recognizes truth as experiential and personal, but not as objective and universal. Therefore all religious beliefs including agnosticism and atheism are respected equally, as long as they do not impose their values on others.
The following have individual replies:2. Transcendental Perspectivism prefers diversity and difference over singularity. These are assumed to be more natural and beneficial in evolutionary terms.
4. Transcendental Perspectivism aims for cooperation and connectedness over competition and survival of the fittest. This, too, is seen to be more natural and adaptive.Women's rights - once again, nothing special. People in civilized societies agree that men should not dominate over women and everyone should be treated equally.3. Transcendental Perspectivism rejects domination in all its forms. It especially rejects domination of men over women. For this reason Transcendental Perspectivism embraces a reevaluation of the philosophical canon from a feminist perspective.
I dont know what that means and I'm not sure how this has any practical benefits or would make someone's life better. I wouldn't want to go into complex psychological discussions about 'Nothingness' and 'consciousness', what they are, how they are related and so on.5. Transcendental Perspectivism assumes that there is a unique perspective, an inside-out view for everything that exists, including Nothingness. This puts consciousness at the center.
A "shamanistic" philosophy? From Wikipedia:6. Central to Transcendental Perspectivism is the search for the Other. Since all is consciousness we can communicate with all. This makes Transcendental Perspectivism a shamanistic philosophy.See underlined. Is he sure about wanting to call TP a shamanistic philosophy? Again, wondering how this has any practical benefits for the individual or society in comparison with more simple ways of life such as humanism, golden rule and so on?Shamanism (/ˈʃɑːmən/ SHAH-mən or /ˈʃeɪmən/ SHAY-mən) is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to encounter and interact with the spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world.[2] A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing.[3]
This addition is pretty arbitrary and again nothing special here. People have believed and known since a long time that mental health and physical health are closely related and effect each other. For example if I'm anxious or have been stressed, this will effect my immune system. If I'm physically sick with flu, this has an effect on my thinking -- things that people have known since a very long time.7. Transcendental Perspectivism assumes a holistic view of the human body. Mind and body are one. Healing the body can never be seen in isolation and vice-versa, a sickness of the mind affects the body.
Once again, the word "shamanistic" is mentioned. Again I have no idea how this point has any practical benefits for the individual or society.8. As a shamanistic philosophy Transcendental Perspectivism provides the basis for a reanimation of the natural (material or inanimate) world. This will not result in a new superstition, but will be complemented by mathematical structure and empirical verification.
This is also pretty arbitrary. I could create a new philosophy called Transcendental Fruit-ta-loop-ism and claim that Transcendental FruitTaLoopIsm unites everything and everyone, defends women's rights, helps people stay healthy, makes them very happy and productive and so on. But can I prove that it has practical benefits that are not observed in societies based on humanism or the golden rule and so on?9. Transcendental Perspectivism bridges the gap between the sciences and the humanities. It reunites the various fields of the cognitive enterprise of humanity by providing a new and in depth understanding of the physical world on which all human knowledge is based.
"By providing a full and in-depth understanding of the physical nature of the human being" ?10. By providing a full and in-depth understanding of the physical nature of the human being Transcendental Perspectivism initiates a renaissance of the body. It invites a physical celebration of the human being within a physical world. This reevaluation of the human body will lead to a third enlightenment, the Enlightenment of the Body.
Isnt the "full and in-depth understanding of the physical nature of the human being" found in medical texts? The rest is just psychobabble that anyone could come up with: A "third" enlightenment of the human body. What are the other two?
The human body has tonnes of components that work together. Sleep well, eat well, exercise if you can, treat others nicely and manage stress. That is all you need to know. Don't worry about the "enlightenment of the body" as there is no such thing. If there is, is there an "enlightenment of the left hand", since the left hand is part of the body? Once again, there are no practical benefits of this point that cannot be achieved by following other more simpler and existing ideas.
Humanity is already connected with the physical world. We are living in it and interact with it on a daily basis, knowingly and unknowingly.11. By reconnecting humanity with the rest of the physical world Transcendental Perspectivism will initiate a new spirituality. This has been called a cosmic spiritually. It is cosmic consciousness because these new individuals will be fully aware of being members of a larger whole, as they themselves are the composite symphony of numerous smaller wholes.
Deletion of this point (#11): Mr. Werner has apparently deleted #11 on his website: http://perspectivism.com/perspectivist-mephesto/
He used to have this point before (see archived version of his MySpace page and other Google results which quote the old version) , so why did he delete it on his website? Like #11, all the other points should be candidates for criticisms and alteration. Why shouldn't some other points be deleted as well? Do followers of his philosophy still believe in #11, because that is now deleted from his website?
This deletion also proves that this manifesto is just another personal essay. Mr. Werner is no more a higher spiritual/philosophical authority than me or you or anyone on the street and therefore is not a role model for anyone and should not be followed without questioning.
On that same link for his website for the manifesto, "ted lumley" seems to be knowledgeable in the area of philosophy and had comments (dated Jan 26, 2011) and seems to bring up a lot of good points such as for #7 where he seems to point our certain defects in Mr. Werner's statements:
Note that Mr. Werner wrote no response to Ted's comments.(a User's comment left on Mr. Werner's website) -- "while this ‘shamanistic transcendental perspectivism’ makes much sense, it seems to invert the natural order of things. it was the imposing of aristotelian telos and absolute euclidian space that allowed us to synthetically/abstractly reduce the energy-charged plenum of space of our experience, to a notional mulitiplicity of local being that notionally move about and interact within an absolute fixed and empty space. so, there is no need to ‘reanimate’ since we are continually included in an animate world, but there is a need to break out of our betwitchment by thought and language (and the notions of subject, object, intention, doer-and-deed which nietzsche rightly identifies as ‘total Fiktions’ but ‘useful Fiktions’ that we are confusing for reality (the tool is running away with the workman)."
Other comments:
In my opinion "Transcendental perspectivism" is someone gathering existing ideas and putting his label on it and calling it a new "philosophy", creating a new faith system for people who would believe in it. Followers of the philosophy then end up discriminating against others who dont believe in it, thinking that somehow the non-believers of the philosophy are inferior in some way or dont know something that the believers know, or that the believers 'get it' but the non-believers don't. This discrimination divides people, creates another "us and them" environment when we already have enough of these already and creates unnecessary hurdles which have no benefits. This discrimination is a significant problem in my opinion. I have seen and personally experienced this discrimination myself.
There is no need for dividing humanity further than it is already divided, and to make anything more complicated. All the rules of living life are simple, intuitive and have existed since a long time. We have to remember that great people have existed in this world without even knowing what this philosophy is and great things have been achieved by individuals and groups without the application of this philosophy. Unless proven otherwise, it is not a necessity for humanity in any way.
What can Mr. Werner's 'Transcendental perspectivism' do for humanity that has not been possible using other ideas? Are there are real live examples of its application that show its benefits?
Any individual, project or initiative should create their/its own set of 11 or 15 points which are customized to their own/its own needs. They/it should not simply borrow "Transcendental perspectivism" without thinking for themselves, looking at it critically, or discriminate in some way against non-believers.
So in this thread I'm requesting any believers of this philosophy to respond to the question I highlighted in the beginning of my post and explain how it is superior, and why they have chosen to believe in it and how it has benefited their lives and those of others in ways that could not be possible believing in more simpler ideas that have existed before.
I will repeat the main inquiry here:
Suppose we have a group of 100 Transcendental perspectivists and they are working together to solve various problems or just living life and interacting with each other in whatever way.
How is this group superior in any way to a group of people who simply believe in the golden rule, humanism or other simple philosophies and ways of life? What would the key differences be?
Bookmarks