At the periphery of phenomenological philosophy lie powerful connections to the ancient and perennial wisdom indicating philosophy’s greatest vocation.
Some philosophers have emphasized the ancient precedents to pure phenomenology, a phrase coming from Burt C. Hopkins, the permanent secretary of the Husserl Circle. The importance of phenomenology’s ancient roots is also emphasized, for instance, by Robert Sokolowski, who appreciates the significance of the aoristos dyas or Indefinite Dyad for phenomenological philosophy. Philosophers working at the intersection of phenomenology and Ancient Greek philosophy have recognized the paradigmatic place of phenomenological philosophy in the broader history of ideas, but few contemporary scholars have fleshed it all out in a way that recognizes phenomenology itself in the ancient world.
The reduction to essences conveys eidetic insight, but it is important to recognize that the eide were once conceived as the mutually co-arising noetic indications of the total cosmos–the pure actualization of ideal beingness as well as its powers–the kosmos noetos.
Consciousness of essence once indicated a real cosmic structure governing all things: the real central intelligence agency. This direction of research supports convergence of meontological foundations (from the Greek μή-ὄν, me-on; non-being) in diverse areas of being as well as diverse areas of research. The non-distinction of astro-theology from ancient physics, for example, is worth considering very deeply. Contemporary categories of thought tend to be shaped by the distinctively modern secular and naturalistic attitude, which shuts down the dimension of spiritual insight by insisting upon artificial blinders keeping the horizons of the modern mind in its planet-side compartments of functioning. The trans-natural aspects of life itself and its logical power are hidden from view by human artifice. But thanks to a wealth of contemporary metaphysical syncretisms the universal significance of such foundational limit-concepts as nothingness, being itself, and the absolute infinite, are no longer hidden from view. Researchers are already moving in these directions.
Phenomenological scientific philosophy as a spiritual means of revelation and discovery is not unprecedented. Neither is the mathematical mysticism that underlies it, nor the cosmic agency which guides it. All these things are universal and forever universally available.
By sharing the philosophy inspired by phenomenological philosophers—especially four key philosophers: Peter Byrne Manchester, Hedwig Conrad-Martius, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, and George Spencer-Brown—I will show how contemporary mystical insight into reality can be achieved today and can guide us to the great vision of the overlooked simplicity of ultimate reality.
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