Volume 61, 2018
Philosophy of Religion
Okinaga Takashi
Pages 161-165
Metaphysics of Pure Experience
Natural science has developed by focusing on the objective side of the universe. It regards the material as reality, and regards the real universe as deterministic and causally created. Here, the mystery of why the material creates subject and life remains unsolved, because neither is reality. And the deterministic and causal universe should contain self-contradiction at the origin of the universe, because this is fundamentally contrary to causal law. It means that natural science still leaves metaphysical problems, although it has been extremely effective for us in recent times. On the hand, philosophy often starts with a certainty of subjective existence. This is affirming that the living universe is not material, and explaining the universe from a phenomenal point of view. Then reality leans toward the subjective side and the existence of an object or material becomes mysterious. As for the phenomenal point of view, subject is not subsumed under the causality, but Will even create the law. Thereupon, the mystery of the origin of the universe disappears and in return Will becomes the Creator of even the origin. And this Will turns out to be a mystery. In opposition to the above this paper examines the position which regards pure experience as reality which is just as direct. Here, both the material and the subject result from the differentiation of pure experience. And pure experience stands without any cause, therefore situated before causality. Again, it stands on neither the phenomenon nor the entity side of the question, and regards the dimension where the two are not differentiated as reality. But in the end it becomes a problem, why we can regard the directness of experience as reality. This paper will suppose such directness to be beyond the provable area, which any judgment should inevitably have.