Transcendental experience

Transcendental experience is a term introduced into theology by Karl Rahner , which is supposed to represent the basis of all metaphysics and rational speech about God . The expression ties in with Immanuel Kant's concept of transcendental conditions of possibility - with Kant above all for empirical judgments, with Rahner especially for religious belief.

Definition

In his work Basic Course of Faith, Rahner develops the foundations of his so-called transcendental theology and defines the concept of transcendental experience as that

"Subject-like, athematic and given in every intellectual act of cognition , necessary and indissoluble co-consciousness of the knowing subject and its unboundedness to the unlimited breadth of all possible reality" .

It is an experience because it is part of "any concrete experience of any object . " It is transcendental because it “belongs to the necessary and irreversible structures of the knowing subject itself” .

The well-known problem of synthetic a priori judgments is touched upon here . Statements about the contents of the transcendental experience are a priori , since they represent the conditions of the possibility of any experience. On the other hand, they are synthetic because they are not analytical judgments .

The transcendental experience shows itself not only in knowing but also in acting. Ultimately, its content is what is understood by “ being ” in the philosophical tradition . The explication of this knowledge, which never comes to an end, is the task of metaphysics.

The term and its theoretical context take borrowings and modifications and the like. a. to Immanuel Kant , Maurice Blondel and Edmund Husserl .

literature

• Karl Rahner : Basic Course in Faith. Introduction to the concept of Christianity. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. U. a. 2004 (10th edition of the special edition). ISBN 3-451-28352-2
• Karl Rahner: Transcendental Theology. In: Herders theologisches Taschenlexikon , Vol. 7, Freiburg 1973, pp. 324–329
• Bernd Irlenborn : What is a transcendental experience ? To the designs by Krings, Rahner, Lotz and Schaeffler. In: Theology and Philosophy 79 (2004), 491-510 ( as pdf )
• Nikolaus Knoepffler: The term “transcendental” in Karl Rahner. On the question of his Kantian origin . Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck / Vienna 1993. ISBN 3-7022-1880-7
• Gerd Neuhaus: Transcendental experience as a loss of history? The reproach of subjectlessness in Rahner's concept of historical existence and a further perspective of transcendental theology. Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 1982. ISBN 3-491-71057-X (also Univ.-Diss. 1981)
• Hansjürgen Verweyen : God's last word. Outline of Fundamental Theology. Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 1991, p. 156 ff. And passim
• Hansjürgen Verweyen : How does an existential become supernatural? On a basic problem in K. Rahner's anthropology. In: Trier theologische Zeitschrift 95 (1986), pp. 115-131

Remarks

1. ↑ Karl Rahner: Basic Course of Faith. P. 31.