Part 1

Slide 1

What can be said

at all can be said
clearly; and
whereof one
cannot speak
thereof one must
be silent.

Thank you for your kind introduction! In the final talk of this
conference, I want to lay the groundwork for our panel
discussion, mainly doing...

Slide 2

Thomas Metzinger
Philosophisches Seminar
Johannes Gutenberg-Universitt Mainz
D-55099 Mainz
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies
D-60438 Frankfurt am Main
[email protected]
http://www.philosophie.uni-mainz.de/metzinger/

... what good philosophy should always doclarify concepts and

develop a theoretical framework that can be used as a basis for
future research on this topic. Such a framework can aid future
research if it is flexible and can be further improved through
rational arguments and new insights from empirical research.
New insights from empirical research have been the topic of this
conference and this raises the question of how they can be
smoothly and rationally integrated into a broader framework.
What is the relationship between scientific research on
meditation and the metaphysical background, the religious
traditions from which meditation originated? I believe there is a
larger, more general question that we are all interested in in the
background, namely: Can anything like a completely secularized
spirituality exist? Or is this possibly not even a coherent
thoughtan idea that cannot be formed in a non-contradictory
manner? This problem,the question concerning the
conditions under which a secularized spirituality is possibleis
so important that we should approach it very carefully and in
small steps. I want to begin by asking three simple questions:

Slide 3

What is spirituality?

What is intellectual honesty?

Is there a conceptual connection

between the two stances?

What is spirituality?
What is intellectual honesty?
And is there a conceptual connection between these
two stances on the world, consciousness and oneself?

This is not a technical philosophical talk; I hope that everything

will be easy to understand. Nonetheless, I want to try to defend
three theses and am looking forward to discussing them with
you. These three theses are:

Slide 4

The opposite of religion is not science, but

spirituality.
The ethical principle of intellectual honesty
can be analyzed as a special case of the
spiritual stance.
In their purest forms, the scientific and the
spiritual stance emerge from the same basic
normative idea.

First, the opposite of religion is not science, but spirituality.

*Murmuring in the background+.
Second, the ethical principle of intellectual honesty can be
analyzed as a special case of the spiritual stance.
And third, the scientific and the spiritual stance in their
purest forms emerge from the same basic normative idea.
As you may already suspect: In order to defend these theses, it
will be necessary (exactly as good philosophyjust as good
meditationshould do), to not only achieve clarity, but also
alertness; and later, at this biorhythmically unfavorable time of
day, I will try to provoke you through the right form of radicality.
Radicality is derived from the Latin word radix, or root; it is an
issue of getting to the roots of things, of the problems in
question. What does this mean? I will begin by offering you a
working definition of spirituality.

Slide 5

In the history of philosophy, the term spiritualitas has three

main meanings. First, it has something like a judicial and cultural
meaningreferring to the totality of spiritualia which is the
opposite of temporal institutions, or temporalia; these are
clerical offices, the administration of the sacraments,
jurisdiction, places of worship and objects, ordained persons like
clerics and persons belonging to religious orders. The second
meaning is the concept of religious spiritualitywhich refers to
different aspects of religious life and is the opposite of
carnalitas, or carnalityand then there is a philosophical
meaning of spirituality, which for centuries referred to the form
of existence of and gaining knowledge about immaterial beings.
Here, the opposites are corporalitas and materialitas. Before
giving you an example, I want to offer you a simple working
definition.

Slide 6

A property of persons:
an epistemic stance,
i.e.: concern with a form of knowledge.

The objects of this form of knowledge

cant be clearly conceptualized,
but possibly correspond to the knowledge that religion
and metaphysics used to search for.

It is unclear whether something like a method of

the spiritual stance exists.

Here the question is: What exactly is spiritualityof what is it a property?

One could say that spirituality is a property of a class of conscious states,
such as certain meditative states. But today, I want to view it as a property
of persons. It is an epistemic stanceepisteme is the Greek word for
knowledge; epistemology is a philosophical subdiscipline concerned with
the theory of knowledge.
So spirituality is an epistemic stance. Spiritual persons do not want to
believe, but to know. It is obviously concerned with a form of knowledge
but from here onwards, things become more difficult. The epistemic goals,
the sought-after objects of knowledge, are conceptually unclear and cant
be distinctly defined. It is unclear whether there can be something like a
method, but these objects possibly correspond to those that were
previously sought after by religion and metaphysics.
For centuries, representatives of spiritual traditions have been debating
whether there is something like a method of spiritual practice and of the
attainment of spiritual knowledge.

Is meditation such a method or does it involve letting go of all

methods and goals?

Does it require effort, or is it effortless?

There are many theories, but in practice, both are true.

Slide 7

An epistemic stance of persons,

where the relevant form of knowledge is

non-theoretical,

non-propositional,

non-cognitive, and

non-discursive.

existential self-knowledge.

self-completion.

So spirituality is an epistemic stance of persons, for whom the

sought-after form of knowledge is not theoretical; in other
words, it is not about a theory, but a certain practice, a spiritual
practice, a certain form of inner activity, which on closer
inspection is revealed to be a form of attentive inactivity. It is
non-propositional; it is not about true sentences. It is also not
about cognitive insights, and the sought-after form of
knowledge is not linguistically communicable, it can at best be
hinted at. On the other hand, spirituality clearly does not
involve a form of therapy or mental wellness, but in a strong
sense is directed at self-knowledge, a radically existential form
of gaining knowledge about oneself; and in many traditions it
also clearly involves something like mental education, a path of
practice, an inner form of virtue or self-completion. At the very
beginning, it involves an epistemic aspect and a normative
aspect, and this means that in a very special sense, the spiritual
stance towards the world involves both knowledge and ethics.

Slide 8

William of Auvergne
(appr.1180/90-1249)
Bishop of Paris
One of the results
of original sin is
brutalitas, which
subjects man to
animal instincts.
Brutalitas is the
exact opposite of
spiritualitas.

. . . spirituality is the perfection by which we first of

all ward off from our souls spiritual evils, which are
vices and sins . . . By this [spirituality] we likewise
seek for our souls spiritual goods, which are all the
virtues and gifts of the graces. (De anima : c. 5, pars 12a)

Here, I have brought you a single first example from medieval

Christian philosophy, which is closely connected to the aspect of
spirituality relating to self-completion. William of Auvergne was
Bishop of Paris and lived there from 1228 to 1249. The idea is
that Spirituality is the perfection by which we first of all ward
off from our souls spiritual evils, which are vices and sins . . . By
this [spirituality] we likewise seek for our souls spiritual goods,
which are all the virtues and gifts of the graces. Here,
spirituality is the conceptual counterpart to brutalitas. Brutalitas
is what subjects men, as a result of original sin, to animal
instincts. This means that spirituality is the opposite of our
animal nature; it is diametrically opposed to it, it is precisely
what we do not share with any animal and what only
characterizes human beings.

Slide 9

. . . for I maintain that the

only spirituality is the
incorruptibility of the self
which is eternal, is the
harmony between reason
and love.

Jiddu
Krishnamurti
(1895-1986)

(2 August 1929; Total Freedom, San Francisco 1996)

In the flame of attention thought ends and

with it feeling, for neither is love. () Out of
the emptiness love is. (Notebook, November 6th, 1961)

From the perspective of traditional Christian philosophy, one

might today consider spirituality as saturating everyday life with
the mental *Vergeistlichung+ while at the same time remaining
directed at the world. But lets move to the present to consider
another single example from perhaps the most important nonacademic philosopher of the past century, Jiddu Krishnamurti. If
there were an academic discipline concerned with the theory
of meditation, I think he would certainly be considered a
classic, one of the most important authors of that discipline.
When he dissolved the Order of the Star in the East, which
was founded for him, as its main representative and worldteacher on August 2nd, 1929, he said ... for I maintain that the
only spirituality is the incorruptibility of the self which is eternal,
is the harmony between reason and love, and this is precisely
the element of the meaning of spirituality that I am concerned
with today.
Incorruptibility is the semantic core of a truly philosophical
concept of spirituality. If our goal is to elevate serious
meditation research to a new level and at the same time to

investigate the possibility of a secularized, but still substantial

form of spirituality, then we need incorruptibility in two
different directions: towards the representatives of
metaphysical systems of belief, who try to bind meditation
practice to a certain type of theory, whatever it may be, but also
towards forms of reductionism that strive to discredit all nonscientific forms of gaining knowledge for purely ideological
reasons.
What is this incorruptibility?
What does it mean to be incorruptible, especially
towards oneself?
Is there a form of spirituality that is not selfcongratulatory, sticky or kitsch, which does not involve
intellectual suicide and losing ones dignity as a critical
rational subject in more or less subtle ways?
Is there something like an inner sense of decency an
inner integrity or honesty in this domain, or must one
always end by resolving oneself to Ludwig
Wittgensteins dictum: Whereof one cannot speak
thereof one must talk *Murmuring in the
background+. More about this later. Ahm, thereof one
must be silent. *Laughter; applause+. I was so
concerned with the next slide *Applause stops+ Are
there any psychoanalysts in the audience? *Laughter+
What does this tell us about me? It only tells me that I
had to proceed to the next slide

Part 2

Slide 10

Lets start again with a simple working definition: What is

intellectual honesty?
Here, I have brought you many more examples from the history
of philosophy.

Slide 11

A property of persons;

an ethical stance towards inner action:

towards what one thinks,

towards what one believes.

the sought-after form of moral integrity

refers to doxastic autoregulation;

coherence between knowledge and belief;

only evidence-based beliefs;
cognition does not serve ones emotional needs.

Intellectual honesty means simply not being willing to lie to or

fool oneself. Intellectual honesty, my esteemed ladies and
gentlemen, is also exactly what representatives of organized
religions and theologians of any type simply cannot have.
Intellectual honesty means possessing an unconditional desire
for truth and knowledge, even where self-knowledge is
concerned and even where self-knowledge is not attended by
pleasant feelings.
Some philosophers also consider intellectual honesty as a virtue,
an intellectual virtue concerning ones own thoughts and inner
actions; an ethical stance towards what one thinks or believes.
The sought-after form of moral integrityand here is a single
technical philosophical termrefers to doxastic
autoregulation. Autoregulation not only exists for emotions,
but also for ones beliefs. It concerns the coherence between
knowledge and belief; it involves having only evidence-based
beliefs and not letting cognition serve ones emotional needs.

Do you realize that these last two points also involve

abstinence? A special form of mental asceticism? Generally, this
means honestly striving for intellectual integrity, an important
and special case of striving for moral integrity. Whoever wants
to become wholea person with integrityby gradually
dissolving all conflicts between her actions and her values, must
also follow this principle in all of her inner actions; especially in
her epistemic actions, or actions related to the acquisition of
knowledge. We act epistemically whenever insight and
knowledge, true beliefs, sincerity and authentic self-knowledge
are concerned. As all meditators know, there is more than one
form of inner knowledge and inner epistemic actions cant be
narrowed to thought or the intellect. Here, I have brought you
four small examples from the history philosophy, as well as one
somewhat deviant point.

Slide 12

Intellectual Honesty:
A moral obligation towards God

An Essay
Concerning
Human
Understanding
(1872/3 [1690]).
Fourth Book
Ch. XVII, 24.

He that believes, without having any

reason for believing, may be in love
with his own fancies; but neither seeks
truth as he ought, nor pays the
obedience due to his maker, who
would have him use those discerning
faculties he has given him, to keep him
out of mistake and error.

This is British philosopher John Locke, and for him, the desire to
know itself is still a religious obligation towards God.
*Quotation+ He that believes, without having any reason for
believing, may be in love with his own fancies; but neither seeks
truth as he ought, nor pays the obedience due to his maker, who
would have him use those discerning faculties he has given him,
to keep him out of mistake and error. *End of quotation+ You
may recognize this thought from the time when your childhood
beliefs ended; at the beginning of enlightenment, at the end of
childhood belief, many of us have something like the following
idea: Well, if God is really is up there, then he cant want us to
simply believe in him; he must want us to try to discover him, to
come to know about him and here you have, at the very
beginning, the idea that intellectual honesty and striving for
knowledge really still is a religious obligation towards God. But
there is more.

Slide 13

Intellectual Honesty

Religion within
the Boundaries of
Mere Reason and
Other Writings
(1793/1998: 98)
Volume II (2)

The sincere intention of

being honest towards
oneself.

The idea of the moral

good in its absolute
purity.

Immanuel Kant would have said the following about honesty in

general: The strict obligation of honest action is to be reason
translated into social practice, because this creates the
conditions for a relation of mutual trust between the members
of society and forms the basis of public order. But the same
thing is true for inner life. I call this being committed towards
oneselfit is the basis of inner order. In his book Religion within
the Boundaries of mere Reason, published in 1793, Immanuel
Kant puts the point differently, writing about the sincere
intention of being honest towards oneself. This is the central
point; and now at the very latest, esteemed ladies and
gentlemen, it should become clear that a very strict form of
rationalism, somehow, could have a lot to with spirituality.
Kant even tells us that this form of intellectual honesty is the
innermost core of morality in general. It is the essence of the
desire for ethical integrity. In 1793, he expressed this as follows:
It is the idea of the moral good in its absolute purity. Kant also
told us what intellectual dishonesty is.

Slide 14

Intellectual Dishonesty:
The inner lie as a lack of truthfulness and sincerity towards oneself:
Unconsciousness as a lack of conscientiousness

. . . man's duty to himself regarded merely as

a moral being . . . is . . . truthfulness." (page
225)
The Metaphysics
of Morals
(1797/1991)
II. Metaphysical
First Principles of
the Doctrine of
Virtue
Chapter II:
Mans Duty to Himself
Merely as a Moral
Being

Insincerity is mere lack of conscientiousness,

that is, of purity in one's professions before
one's inner judge . . . this inner lie, although
it is indeed contrary to man's duty to himself,
gets the name of a frailty, as when a lover's
wish to find only good qualities in his beloved
blinds him to her obvious faults. (p. 226)

In the Metaphysics of Morals, he tells us to recognize as an

ethical value ones moral duty to truthfulness. Man, as a moral
being, has a duty to himself towards the truth. What does this
mean in Berlin in the year 2010? Inner decency I will refrain
from making a number of cynical comments about inner
decency and the fact that we are currently in the capital of
Germany, about our political caste, and I also do not want say
anything about the unbelievable amount of death and human
suffering brought to us, for instance, by the Deutsche Bank and
its employees *Applause+; I want to tell you something much
more pleasant.
Do you see how Kant explains this? Kant says dishonesty is really
just a lack of conscientiousness. A lack of conscientiousness in
an ethical sense of inner action is a form of unconsciousness or
unawareness. And I think this is a point that could be of interest
for the participants of this conference, and so I want to take you
on a brief excursion; I have brought you several more nice
examples from the history of philosophy.

Slide 15
A1

The German term Gewissen, as is the English

term conscience, is a calque derived from the
Latin term conscientia:

Joint knowledge or co-awareness,

Consciousness,
Conscience.

Old high German: gewizzeni

Religious-moral awareness,
inner consciousness.

Notker teutonicus
(ca. 950-1022)

The first example is the relationship between consciousness and

conscience. Why? Because meditation and spirituality clearly concern
the right type of consciousness and intellectual honesty clearly
concerns conscientiousness, I want to draw your attention to two
points that have been almost completely forgotten, even in current
academic philosophy. The German term Gewissen, as is the English
term conscience, is directly derived from the Latin conscientia, which
meant jointly knowing, knowing together with or co-awareness, but
also consciousness and conscience. The first point is that throughout
most of the history of philosophy, consciousness had a lot to do with
conscience. Before modern times, being unconscious also meant
lacking a conscience. Consciousness was related to introspective,
ethical metacognition. With the Old High German term gewizzeni you
have the first appearance of religious-moral consciousness, inner
consciousness. Notker Labeo, the thick lipped, was born into a family of
Swiss noblemen in 950; he was the director of the convent school in St.
Gallen and he first introduced this term. The date of his death is known
more precisely, he died on June 29th 1022 of the plague, which the holy
Roman emperor Henry II had brought to Switzerlandand here you
see the first connection to the German term Gewissen.

Slide 16

The Latin term conscientia is a translation of

the Greek term (syneidesis):

Moral conscience,
co-knowledge or co-awareness of ones own bad
actions:
inner consciousness,
accompanying consciousness,
disconcerting inner consciousness ( purity).
normative stance,
inner witness.

The Latin term conscientia is a translation of the Greek term syneidesis, referring
to moral conscience, co-awareness of ones own bad actions, inner
consciousness, accompanying consciousness or joint knowledge, disconcerting
consciousnesstaking a normative stance and especially the existence of an
inner witness.
I find it interesting that all of these concepts from early philosophy suddenly
sound completely different when they are not read from the perspective of the
later addition of the Christian metaphysics of guiltor of Kants idea of the
inner judge and permanent inner self-condemnationbut rather if one reads
them in a fresh and unbiased manner from the perspective of serious
meditation practice. Witness consciousness, for instance, can also mean
something completely different than inner accusation, disconcertment and selfcondemnation, as a mechanism of inner self-punishment learned through
Christian education. It could even have something to do with altruism, with a
non-judgmental form of compassion for oneself and not with the generation of
inner conflict. I think you know what I mean.
Democritus and Epicurus already philosophized about the bad conscience and
Cicero formed the unmatched term of the morderi conscientiae, the pangs of
conscience or as we say in German, the bite of conscience, Gewissensbiss.
Even before Christian philosophy, the idea existed that conscience is a form of
inner violence, a way to persistently hurt oneself. Here are two important
landmarks in the history of the term.

Slide 17

Philo of Alexandria (15/10 B.C.- 40 A.D.)

Considered the most important thinker of Hellenistic Judaism

The conscience is the witness of mans most

secret plans.
It was given to him by God to improve his actions.
Inner apprehension of the culprit, inner
accusation, inner tribunal, inner chastisement
(conscientia consequens)
Positive governing moral authority
(conscientia antecedens)

Augustine (354-430):

Conscience calls upon the innermost of

man . (Enarratio in Psalmos 45,3)

Philo of Alexandria, the most important thinker of Hellenistic

Judaism, for instance, said things such as *Quotation+ The
conscience is the witness of mans most secret plans. It was
given to him by God to improve his actions. *End of quotation+
In Augustine, 354-430, you find the idea that conscience calls
upon the innermost of man. Consciousness has a lot to do with
having a conscience.

Slide 18

Conscientia (as a noun first in judicial rhetoric):

To bear testimony to

a persons guilt,
an action.

Later (Christian authors):

Conscientia as witness to an ideal court

( Last Judgment);
Relates the delinquent to the offense;
Enables remorse, forgiveness, rehabilitation.
Mediates between divine and finite knowledge of actions: the
Agent shares his knowedge with the ideal observer, whose
normative judgment is unknown to him.

It means bearing witness to a persons guilt, an action, and later,

for Christian authors, it also means bearing witness to an ideal
court.
Here, an interesting idea would be, for instance, that within
the logic of this theology, the Last Judgment is the highest
form of consciousness, of becoming aware.
Another interesting idea shared by many of these early
philosophers is that an agent shares his knowledge with an
inner observer.

Slide 19

Conscientia

is part of the conscious human being, as an inner space,

into which sensory perception cannot penetrate;
is a place of retreat, in which one can be alone with God
even before death,
which contains hidden knowledge about ones own
actions and
private knowledge about the contents of ones own
mind,
and is also the point of contact between the ideal and
the actual human being, created by bearing witness to
ones own sins.

However, there is never a convincing argument for why this

ideal observation has to be conducted by a person or a self; and
it may be precisely this point that - in the context of our
conference - makes Buddhist philosophy superior to Christian
philosophy.
In sum, one can extract the following from many early writings.
Consciousness or conscientia is part of the conscious human
being as an inner space into which sensory perception cannot
penetrate; it is a place of retreat, in which one can be alone with
God even before death, which contains hidden knowledge
about ones own actions and private knowledge about the
contents of ones own mind, and is also the point of contact
between the ideal and the actual human being, created by
bearing witness to ones own sins.
Ladies and gentleman, do you see the connection between
witness consciousness and bearing witness? Independently of
whether one agrees with this or notand you know that I am
really a completely different type of philosopherI think that
even today one can acknowledge that all of this has a deep form
of beauty.

Slide 20

Ren Descartes (1596-1650):

By the term 'thought'

[cogitatio], I understand
everything which we are
aware [conscius] of as
happening within us, in so far
as we have awareness
[conscientia] of it.)
(Principia Philosophiae 1,9)

Then Descartes put an end to all of this. "By the term 'thought'
*cogitatio+, I understand everything which we are aware
*conscius+ of as happening within us, in so far as we have
awareness *conscientia+ of it." (p. 195)

Slide 21

Descartes constitutes the modern concept of

consciousness.
Descartes separates conscience and
consciousness.
Conscientia

is only rarely mentioned by Descartes,

is never really defined or explained in detail,
but is a central and defining feature of cogitatio.

Descartes constituted the modern concept of consciousness and

separated it from the concept of conscience. However,
conscientia is rarely mentioned by Descartes and is never
explicitly defined or explained. Nonetheless, it is a central and
defining feature of cogitatio, or of thinking.
Now I want to introduce a second small point from the history
of philosophy of mind.

Slide 22

Lets go to the year 1719. I want to show you the first mention of the term
consciousness in German, which was introduced by Christian Wolff. He
lived from 1679-1754 and was an influential German scholar, jurist and
mathematicianone of the most important philosophers of enlightenment
between Leibniz and Kant. He wrote that consciousness is the property that
allows us to realize that we are thinking, *Quotation+ Solcherart setzen wir
das Bewusstsein, als ein Merkmal, woraus wir erkennen, dass wir
gedenken. *End of quotation+ So what is consciousness? It is what allows
you to realize that you are currently thinking; and from the perspective of
meditation research, this can once more be read in a completely different
manner. Every experienced meditator knows exactly what it means to think
without realizing that you are currently thinking. May I draw your attention
to a second point that will typically be overlooked by academic historians of
philosophy? Wolff also wrote that the first perception we have of our soul,
when we attend to it, is that we are conscious of many things as external to
ourselves *Quotation+ Ich habe schon oben erinnert, was das erste ist so
wir von unserer Seele wahrnehmen, wenn wir auf sie Acht haben, nmlich,
dass wir uns vieler Dinge als auer uns bewusst sind. *End of quotation+
Do you see that the essence of consciousness can only be grasped by
attending to ones soul, as Wolff writes? Here we have the idea of
attentivenessof attending to ones soulat the very beginning of
German philosophy of mind, in our own philosophical tradition. I think,
once again, you can see what I am getting at.

Slide 23

Just for fun, I brought you the title page of Christian Wolffs
important work *Quotation+ Rational Thoughts on God, the
World and the Soul of Man, and on All Things Whatsoever *End
of quotation+. Ladies and gentlemen, thats what I call a
research program! *Laughter+ *Quotation+ .to be imparted to
the Lovers of Truth. *End of quotation+
So even in the Western philosophical tradition, there is a
connection between moral conscience and consciousness, and
between prereflexive mindfulness and consciousness. We now
end our short excursion and return to intellectual honesty, but
will remain with German philosophy in all of its incomparable
grandeur.

Slide 24

The intellectual conscience:

The unconditional will to truth
and the conscience behind the conscience

Where my honesty ceases I am blind and

also want to be blind. But where I want
to know, I also want to be honest, namely
venomous, rigorous, vigorous, cruel and
Thus spoke
inexorable.
Intellectual honesty is the culmination
and the last virtue of the GreekChristian history of ideas, because it leads
to the self-transcendence
[Selbstaufhebung] of the religious-moral
interpretation of the will to truth.

Zarathustra
(1838)
KSA: 312 (p. 202)

What is the logical connection between consciousness and intellectual honesty?

For Friedrich Nietzsche it is the conscience behind the conscience. *Quotation+
Where my honesty ceases I am blind and also want to be blind. But where I
want to know, I also want to be honest, namely venomous, rigorous, vigorous,
cruel and inexorable." *End of quotation; p. 202) Nietzsche was one of the first
philosophers to really write about inner honesty, about the conscientiousness
of the mind as an ethics of cognitive action.
And here is an early version of the core idea of my talk, and it is important to me
that it be comprehensible to everyone: All of this involves a certain form of
letting go, namely a certain form of asceticism. For Nietzsche, intellectual
honesty is the culmination and last virtue of the Greek-Christian history of
ideas, because it leads to the self-transcendence *Selbstaufhebung+ of the
religious-moral interpretation of the desire for truth.
In its highest form, this will to truthfulness has a consequence for spirituality,
namely that one can admit to oneself that there is no empirical evidence of
Gods existence, and that in the course of four thousand years of the history of
philosophy there was no ultimately convincing argument for the existence of
God. In its highest form, the will to truthfulness allows us to relinquish our
search for emotional security and pleasant feelings, which has been hard-wired
into us in the course of evolution, and to face the fact that we are radically
mortal beings. Truthfulness towards ourselves allows us discover the delusional
element and the systematic denial of finiteness in our self-model.
The philosophical debate in Anglo-Saxon culture was more profound, and, most
of all, analytically more clear and substantial. Today, the technical debate is
conducted under the title of The Ethics of Belief.

Slide 25

The Ethics of Belief

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for
anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient
evidence.
William Kingdon
Clifford
(1845-1879)
The Ethics of Belief
(1877)

(P1)
(P2)
(C)

At any time, at any place and for every

person it is equally wrong to ignore or
carelessly reject the relevant evidence for
ones own beliefs.

We have an epistemic obligation to possess

sufficient evidence for all of our beliefs;
We have a moral obligation to uphold our epistemic
obligations;
Thus, we have a moral obligation to possess
sufficient evidence for all of our beliefs.

When is it permissive from an ethical and moral perspective to

believe in something specific, or to adopt a certain belief as
ones own?
The British philosopher and mathematician William Kingdon
Clifford was the founding father of this question, which is
central to the distinction between religion and spirituality. The
two main principles are that *Quotation+ It is wrong always,
everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon
insufficient evidence. *End of quotation+ And correspondingly,
At any time, at any place and for every person it is wrong to
ignore or carelessly reject the relevant evidence for ones own
beliefs. About those who do not act according to the second
principle, he said the following: *Quotation+ If a man, holding a
belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of
afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which
arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books
and the company of men that call in question or discuss it, and
regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked
without disturbing itthe life of that man is one long sin against
mankind. *End of quotation+

Interestingly, most philosophers agree on this point and the

standard position is the fundamental moral position of
evidentialism. This means only believing in things for which
one actually has arguments and evidence. The philosophical
counterpart is fideism. This is the position of faith, of pure
belief. Here, the philosophical thesis is that it is legitimate to
hold on to a belief that not only lacks any positive arguments or
evidence in its favor, but even in the face of strong
counterarguments and strong empirical evidence against ones
own beliefs.
Here are two further basic concepts from my discipline:
Dogmatism is the thesis that It is legitimate to hold on to
a belief just because one already has it. *Laughter+ A very
simple definition!
In philosophy, fideism is the thesis that it is completely
legitimate to hold on to a belief when there are no good
reasons or evidence in its favor, even despite existing
counterarguments.
What is interesting, however, is that fideism can be described as
the refusal to take any ethical stance on ones inner actions at
all. And this is the classical standpoint of organized religion, as
opposed to spirituality. If one were to interpret these two
epistemological positions from a purely psychological
perspective, one could say that fideism involves deliberate selfdeception, systematic wishful thinking or even paranoia;
whereas the psychological goal of the ethics of belief consists in
a certain form of mental health. I call this form of mental health
intellectual integrity.
Fideism and dogmatism can also be seen from a different
perspective: If you allow yourself to hold on to a certain belief in

the absence of positive theoretical or practical evidence, then

you have already given up on the whole idea of an ethics of
inner actions. You reject the project of intellectual honesty, and
on the level of your own mind you reject not only rationality,
but also morality. And this is what I meant at the beginning of
this talk when I said that Intellectual honesty is what
theologians and representatives of organized religions of any
kind just cannot have.
Unfortunately, this is the end of the uplifting part of my lecture
and the little pleasant little nap that many of you
comprehensiblyhave secretly been trying to take since lunch
is now over.

Slide 26

What exactly

does intellectual
honesty mean in 2010?
Example 1: Religion
Example 2: Life after death
Example 3: Enlightenment

In order to understand more exactly what the connection

between spirituality and intellectual honesty is, let us look at
three concrete examples, and let us remember William Kingdon
Cliffords second principle, according to which it is wrong,
always, everywhere, and for anyone, to ignore or carelessly
reject the relevant evidence for ones own beliefs. The three
examples are: Religion, life after death and enlightenment.

Slide 27

Conceptually:
Even after 2500 years, there is no convincing
argument for Gods existence in the history
of Western philosophy.

Proofs of Gods existence fail.

Agnosticism (withholding judgment) is probably not

an option, because the burden of proof is on the side
of theism.

Conceptually, there is not a single ultimately convincing

argument for Gods existence in 2500 years of the history of
Western philosophy. All known proofs of Gods existence fail.
And retreating to agnosticismas many of us preferand
saying I wont say anything about this, I withhold judgment! is
not an easy option. This position is problematic, because the
entire burden of proof is on the side of the theists. If all
evidence and empirical data point to the fact that the Easter
Bunny does not exist, it is also not intellectually honest to say I
am agnostic regarding the existence of the Easter Bunny; I
consider this to be an open question! *Laughter+. From the
point of view of informal logic and critical thinking it may well
be that agnosticism, too, is not really an option.

Slide 28

Empirically:
There is no empirical evidence for the
existence of God.

There is an increasing number of convincing theories

on the evolution of religiousness.

Evolutionary psychology is providing very first models

of the development of metaphysical belief systems.

Religion is being naturalized.

It is trivial to say that there is no empirical evidence for Gods

existence, but there is an increasing number of convincing
theories on the evolution of religious belief. Evolutionary
psychology is providing the first models for the development of
metaphysical belief systems. And there is a movement aiming to
naturalize religion.

Slide 29

I brought you two examples: The first is from Daniel Dennett,

who is possibly the most famous contemporary philosopher of
consciousness, and Ryan McKay. Like many researchers, they are
trying to understand the evolutionary development of false
beliefs: delusional systems, positive illusions and systematic
deception.

Slide 30

I dont want to go into the scientific findings, but, as an

example, I do want to point out the work of Robert Trivers and
Bill von Hippel. There will be a big target paper in BBSin case
you are interested in the sciencein which they explain the
evolution and psychology of self-deception. The bottom line is
that it is now completely clear

Slide 31

New research shows that in many cases, there was an

evolution of systematic mental misrepresentations of reality.
There is an evolution of self-deception.
In many cases, positive Illusions, mechanisms of denial and
repression and delusional models of reality enhanced the
reproductive success of our biological ancestors.
The central problem for our species is our explicit and
consciously experienced insight into our own mortality.

.. that there is an evolution of self-deception. The conventional

view that natural selection favored nervous systems producing
ever more exact images of themselves and of reality, this view
really has been falsified.
Recent research shows that in many cases, evolution developed
systematic misrepresentations of reality. There is an evolution of
self-deception. In many cases, positive illusions, mechanisms of
suppression and delusional models of reality enhanced the
reproductive success of our biological ancestors. *Laughter+ The
new main problem for our species is our explicit and consciously
experienced insight into our own mortality. In this context, I
have coined the concept of adaptive delusional systems. Dr.
Schnabel from the ZEIT *the most important German weekly
newspaper+ always says I shouldnt say things like that, because
then nobody will like me any more *Laughter+. Instead, I should
speak of reality models, as I used to in the past. But I am
seriously interested in this aspect of mental health and illness:
The interesting new insight seems to be that evolution
developed successful forms of mental illness.

Slide 32

Adaptive delusional
systems:
Cohesion of large
groups.
Stabilization of
internal hierarchies.
Functionally adequate
forms of selfdeception.
Evolution of religion:

Burial rites, burial

objects, ancestor cult.
Denial of mortality.

The representatives of these two delusional systems

*Laughter+ are importantly different: One of these delusional
systems has survived for 2000 years; the Thousand Year Empire
disappeared after twelve years.
Adaptive delusional systems increase group cohesion and
stabilize internal hierarchies, for instance existing structures of
power and systems of exploitation. This means that they are
functionally adequate forms of self-deception, enabling a group
to assert itself against other groups under certain conditions.
The evolution of religion developed from rites of burial,
including burial objects and ancestor cults, that is, from
systematic forms of denying our own mortalitycoping
strategies for dealing with our own finiteness. Being
intellectually honest does not mean that one cannot believe
anything different! It only means acknowledging the current
situation and what intelligent people have to say about it, that is
all.

Slide 33

Conceptually:
In current philosophy of mind, practically nobody
endorses the position of substance dualism.

Approximately nine different models for

solving the mind-body problem exist.

Even property dualists and antireductionists do not argue for personal

survival after death.

What about life after death? Conceptually, substance dualism is no

longer regarded as a tenable position in current philosophy of mind.
You can read the details in the second volume of my Grundkurs
Philosophie des Geistes *three volumes containing the most important
philosophical articles on phenomenal consciousness, the mind-body
problem and intentionality, with introductions and additional
literature+.
Approximately nine different models for solving the mind-body
problem have been proposed, but none of them assumes that there
could be something like personal survival after death. Even antireductionists and property dualists do not argue for personal survival
after death.
There are different forms of death denial. For the theory of meditation
and for philosophers, Buddhist philosophy obviously is the most
interesting. Here, death denial takes a slightly more subtle form, but is
nonetheless easy to detect: We do not want to be reborn. We want to
free ourselves from the cycle of death and rebirth. But unfortunately, if
something goes wrong with enlightenment, we have to come back.
*Laughter+ So, the alternative is either life after death or
enlightenmentall in all, not a bad situation! *Laughter+

Slide 34

Empirically:
In current consciousness research, nobody
assumes that life after death is a real possibility.

A functioning brain is a necessary condition for

phenomenal states to arise.

Upward determination.

Research homes in on the

neural correlate of consciousness (NCC).

No one in current empirical consciousness researchorganized in an

association of which I am the president *Laughter+, the Association for
the Scientific Study of Consciousness so I can speak here with
simple personal authority: In this community of people searching for
the neural correlate of consciousness, no one believes in life after
death. A functioning brain is a necessary condition for phenomenal
states to arise. Even if conceptual reduction is impossible, it is obvious
that everything is determined from the bottom up, and serious
research aims to find the neural correlate of consciousness. And, of
course, the idea is that even advanced meditative states will have a
neural correlate without which they cannot arise.
Again, it is essential to understand the following point: One does not
have to believe that all these theories are true! All of this could be
false. Intellectual honesty involves being honest toward oneself and
simply acknowledging the fact that this is the current state of affairs in
science and philosophy. In fact, if we want to act responsibly and with
integrity, we never have anything but the Now - and this includes the
Now of empirical consciousness research.

Slide 35

Conceptually:

From a philosophical perspective, there are no

good arguments for saying that

a single,

well-defined,

culturally invariant,

theory- and

description-independent state of consciousness exists that

can be identified with the enlightenment.

What about enlightenment?

This is Robert Sharf, the Director of Buddhist Studies at the
University of California in Berkeley. He once invited me to lunch
and made the following point clear to me: From a philosophical
perspective, there are no good arguments for saying that a
single, well-defined, culturally invariant, theory- and
description-independent state of consciousness exists that can
be identified with enlightenment. This man lived in Burma for
a long time, also in monasteries, he knows all of the writings in
their original languages, and he made this very clear to me: In
no period of history did Buddhist philosophers agree about
what enlightenment is.
We only know what enlightenment is in the West, where we
satisfy our emotional needs in New Age book shops and in doing
so, exploit other cultures. This is a problem and one has to face
this fact.

Slide 36

Empirically:

Does meditation research show that

a single,

well-defined,

culturally invariant,

theory- and

description-independent state of consciousness exists

that can be identified with the enlightenment?

Can it even show this?

Empirically I simply want to ask you:

Does empirical meditation research show that a single,
well-defined, culturally invariant, theory- and descriptionindependent state of consciousness exists that can be
identified with the enlightenment?
Can empirical research even show this?

Slide 37

Fred von Allmen

The

GiGa-BinGo
Illusion
Probably the best meditation teacher I have ever met is Fred
von Allmen from Beatenberg, Switzerland. As you may have
noticed, as an analytical philosopher, I love precise technical
terms that can simply and concisely grasp the core of a problem.
Here is one of my favorite technical terms, which I learned from
Fred von Allmen.
It is the Giga-Bingo-Illusion *Laughter+, the illusion of being
completely confused, and then being able to sit under a Bodhitree until one time suddenly something happens - the first prize,
Giga-Bingo - and from then on, everything is different.

Part 3

Slide 38

I am already approaching the end of my talk.

Slide 39

What

is spirituality?

What

is intellectual honesty?

Is

there a conceptual
connection between the two
stances?

Here are the three questions we asked at the beginning of this

talk. I briefly sketched what spirituality might be, and also what
intellectual honesty is. And I think now something like the
following picture is emerging: Historically, religion was
obviously there first: belief systems shared by ever larger groups
of people, which alleviated peoples fear of death and
considerably strengthened group cohesionboth internally and
externally, by stabilizing existing structures of exploitation and
also in the fight against other groups. These fideist-dogmatic
reality models historically developed from burial rites, ancestor
cults and shamanism.

Slide 40

The opposite of religion is not science, but

spirituality.
The ethical principle of intellectual honesty
can be analyzed as a special case of the
spiritual stance.
In their purest forms, the scientific and the
spiritual stance emerge from the same
basic normative idea.

And here are, once more, the three theses. Historicallyin our
own historywhat came last was the ideal of intellectual
honesty, self-critical rationalism and enlightenment. The ideal of
intellectual honesty in this sense is something completely new
that is only rudimentarily beginning to realize itself in very few
places on our planet, in very few cultures.
What made intellectual honesty possibly, however, were the
originally religious ideals of unconditional truthfulness and
honesty towards God. In the reflexive turn toward man himself,
these ideals turned into the two ethical ideals of unconditional
truthfulness and honesty, of relentless candidness toward
oneself. The unconditional avowal of epistemic progress itself.
What most people fail to see clearly, however, is this: there is
more than one form of epistemic progress.

Slide 41

The opposite of religion is not science, but

spirituality.
The ethical principle of intellectual honesty
can be analyzed as a special case of the
spiritual stance.
In their purest forms, the scientific and the
spiritual stance emerge from the same basic
normative idea.

Now, allow me to briefly compare religion and spirituality.

Slide 42

Religion as the opposite of spirituality

Religion

Spirituality

Fideism: Cultivation of a
delusional system.
Maximizes emotional profit.
Sacrifices rationality for the
emotional coherence of the
self-model.

Epistemic stance:
Aims at insight.
Searches for direct
experience.
Dissolves the phenomenal
self.

Dogmatism:
Intellectually dishonest.
Organizes itself.
Evangelizes.

Ideal of truthfulness:
Open for rational
arguments.
Radically individual.
Typically: Quiet.

Religion would then be: the cultivation of a delusional, fideist system.

Spirituality would be the epistemic stance interested in insight and
knowledge. Religion maximizes emotional profitpleasant feelings of
security. Spirituality aims at direct experience. Religion sacrifices
rationality for the emotional coherence of the self-model. Spirituality
dissolves the phenomenal self-model. Religion is dogmatic and
therefore intellectually dishonest. Spiritual people will always be open
to rational argumentation. Religion organizes itself. Spirituality is
something radically individual.
Before briefly offering you an interesting comparison, I want to remind
you of the two epistemological concepts that characterize what I mean
by religion in the actual sense, namely of being a genuine stance of
belief.
Dogmatism is the thesis that it is perfectly legitimate to hold
onto a belief just because one already has it. That is,
independently of empirical evidence or rational reasons.
Fideism is the standpoint of pure belief. In philosophy, fideism
is the thesis that it is not only completely legitimate to hold on to
a belief when there is no evidence or any good reasons for this
opinion, but also when there are arbitrarily many good reasons or
evidence against it.
Religion evangelizes. Spiritual people tend to be quiet.

Slide 43

The opposite of religion is not science, but

spirituality.
The ethical principle of intellectual honesty
can be analyzed as a special case of the
spiritual stance.
In their purest forms, the scientific and the
spiritual stance emerge from the same basic
normative idea.

What about the ethical principle of intellectual honesty as a

special case of the spiritual stance?

Slide 44

Spirituality and Science:

Intellectual honesty as a special case of the spiritual stance

Spirituality
Epistemic stance:
Aimed at insight.
Unconditional will to knowledge.
Search for direct experience.

Dissolves the phenomenal self.

Ideal of truthfulness:
Open for rational arguments.
Radically individual.
Typically: Quiet.

Science
Rational methodology:
Systematically maximizes
epistemic progress.
Search for empirical evidence;
is strictly data-driven.
Allows theories to fail in the
face of reality.
Principle of parsimony:
Minimizes ontological
assumptions.
Organizes itself.
Disseminates knowledge.

We have seen that spirituality is an epistemic stance, the

unconditional desire for knowledge. In science, there is a
rational methodology that systematically maximizes epistemic
progress. On the one hand, there is the search for direct
experience. On the other hand, there is data collection, strictly
data-driven procedures. On the one hand, the dissolution of the
phenomenal self, on the other hand, the idea that theories
should be allowed to fail in the face of reality, again and again.
On the level of spirituality, there is a strong ideal of truthfulness
and veracity, and in science, the principle of parsimonyof
minimizing assumptions. Spirituality is radically individual and
science is also an organized undertaking, involved in the
dissemination of knowledge. And here is a final example of the
spiritual stance in philosophy of science.

Slide 45

At exactly those
moments in which our
theories fail in the face
of reality, we are in
contact with reality.
Critical Rationalism: I am not prepared to accept anything
that cannot be defended by means of argument or
experience () Now it is easy to see that this principle
of an uncritical rationalism is inconsistent; for since it
cannot, in its turn, be supported by argument or by
experience, it implies that it should itself be discarded.
The Open Society and its Enemies, (1945; vol. II: 217)

The philosopher Karl Popper said that we are always in contact

with reality at exactly those moments in which we falsify a
hypothesisthis is the moment of contact.
But he also said the following: *Quotation+ I am not prepared to
accept anything that cannot be defended by means of argument
or experience . . . Now it is easy to see that this principle of an
uncritical rationalism is inconsistent; for since it cannot, in its
turn, be supported by argument or by experience, it implies that
it should itself be discarded. *End of quotation+ This is the idea
of critical rationalism, from the year 1945.

Slide 46

The opposite of religion is not science, but

spirituality.
The ethical principle of intellectual honesty
can be analyzed as a special case of the
spiritual stance.
In their purest forms, the scientific and the
spiritual stance emerge from the same
basic normative idea.

In this sense, intellectual honesty is a special case of spirituality:

it came into being long before science, but after religion, and it
is an inner practice that is independent of adaptive delusional
systems. And I think everyone who knows real scientists can
confirm that they are often very spiritual, though they would
not describe themselves this way.
What does it mean that science and religion emerged from the
same basic normative idea? That was my third thesis.

Slide 47

The unconditional

will to truth:

The goal is insight, not belief.

Normative ideal of absolute truthfulness.

The reflexive turn:

The unconditional will to truthfulness towards oneself:

Spirituality
( self-dissolution of fideist-dogmatic religion);

Scientific method ( self-critical rationalism).

This basic normative stance has two aspects: the unconditional

will to truthwhose goal is insight, not beliefand the
normative ideal of absolute truthfulness. The normative ideal of
unconditional sincerity towards God originates in religion. The
reflexive turn inward, turning the desire for truthfulness
towards oneself, gives rise to spirituality, the spiritual stance,
and this in turn gives rise to intellectual honesty, which is the
core of scientific method, of self-critical rationalism.
Do you remember conscientia, in the sense of higher-order
knowledge? Consciousness is the moment at which the
process of insight itself becomes reflexive.
Do you remember Immanuel Kants quotation from
Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason? The
sincerity of the intention of being honest towards oneself,
he says, is the idea of the moral good in its absolute
purity. As we know, however, this is not about an abstract
idea, but a process in the real world.

Slide 48

To conclude my talk, I want to ask: What is left if things stand

the way I have sketched them? What remains?
I hope it has now become clear that there is a connection
between spirituality and science: the latter originates in the
former, and they are both forms of epistemic practice, of acting
for insight, for the sake of knowledge.

Slide 49

The ethics of inner action:

in spiritual practice

and in the ideal of intellectual honesty.

Two basic forms of epistemic action:

subsymbolic: attention, mindfulness.

cognitive: scientific rationality.

What

is left?

But does one really have to choose between these two forms of
knowing? There is an ethics of inner action in spiritual practice
and in the scientific ideal of intellectual honesty. There are two
basic forms of epistemic action: subsymbolicnamely through
attention; and cognitiveon the level of scientific rationality.
We have now seen that both forms of action are based on the
same normative ideal, and, by the way, there is an old-fashioned
philosophical term for the ability and inner stance allowing one
to do what one has recognized as good with inner inclination
and pleasure. And this old-fashioned term is virtue. So one can
also say that honesty in this sense is an intellectual virtue that
can be cultivated over time, just as the inner virtues of
mindfulness and empathy are mental abilities that can be
gradually improved.
But lest we now turn into self-satisfied, romantic paragons of
virtue, we should face the facts. On the one hand, it is clear that
meditative experience cannot be reduced to the aspect of

wellness and that it is not simply an additional instrument in the

tool kit of psychotherapy. On the other hand, I think it is still an
open question whether a secular, intellectually honest form of
spirituality can exist, and I am looking forward to our discussion
after the coffee break. Nonetheless: If it is true that no empirical
evidence and no rational arguments for the existence of God or
life after death exist, and if we are really honest to ourselves
and admit that nobody really knows whether anything like
enlightenment existswhat is left? What remains?
I think we can admit this much: at the current stage of the
history of science and philosophy, in the era of neuroscience
and evolutionary psychology, it is emotionally difficult to face
the facts. Intellectual honesty does not come easily. What can
one do in this situation? I think the answer is obvious: Our
future is openand this is another fact that one should not
suppressand we simply do not know where these internal and
external processes of expanding insight will take us. The desire
to know more is the only option we have if we do not want to
give up our dignity and self-respect. For this reason, we have to
hold on to epistemic action, but on both levels at the same time
and not only on one of these two levels. So what is left? I think
what is left is meditation and science.
Thank you for your attention. *Applause+

Slide 50

This is the unedited transcript of a lecture given in Berlin on the 27th of November 2010, at a conference on Meditation und Wissenschaft.
A video (in 6 parts) can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1MBG7FaZKM

I wish to thank Dr. Michael Madary, Jennifer M. Windt, and Prof. Kenneth Williford for help with the English translation.

References for English translations of quoted material:

Slide 1: Wittgenstein, L. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus C. K. Ogden, trans. Dover Publications,

1998.

Slide 8: William of Auvergne The Soul R.J. Teske, S. J., trans. Marquette University Press, 2000. (p.
222)

Slide 13: Kant, I. Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason And Other Writings A. Wood and
G. Di Giovanni, trans. and ed. Cambridge University Press, 1998. (page 98)

Slide 14: Kant, I. The Metaphysics of Morals M. Gregor trans. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
(page 225 /226)

Slide 20: Descartes, R. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes Vol. 1 J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, D.
Murdoch, trans. Cambridge University Press, 1985. (page 195)

Slide 24: Nietzsche, F. Thus Spoke Zarathustra A. Del Caro, trans. Cambridge UniversityPress, 2006.
(page 202)

www.philosophie.uni-mainz.de/metzinger/