CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES: STATUS AND PROSPECTS OF THE SCIENTIFIC FIELD
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31392/cult.alm.2023.2.23Keywords:
philosophy, epistemology, contemplative studies, contemplative practices.Abstract
The article examines the main aspects of a new field – Contemplative Studies. This is a field that combines the interests of applied sciences and humanities, plays the role of a platform for cooperation, exchange of knowledge and experience between researchers from various disciplines: cognitive sciences, neurosciences, medicine, education, philosophy, psychology, cultural studies, religious studies etc. The history of the field is determined by several important stages: the dialogue of religious and spiritual traditions of the world (19th century), changes in immigration policy in the West in the 20th century, increased attention to Eastern spiritual practices and the transmission of these practices thanks to living carriers from Asia. Later, centers of researchers of meditation, yoga and other phenomena are formed in science, which are currently summarized under the common concept of contemplative practices. We can conditionally distinguish two major branches in scientific research: Contemplative Science (cognitive studies, neuroscience, medicine, etc.) and Contemplative Studies (mainly humanities). In the article, I also analyze the main concepts and ideas that are used methodologically by specialists in the field: contemplation, contemplative practices, experience (from the perspective of first, second and third person). New methodologies in education are aimed at building trust in subjective experience, creating a healthy educational environment for dialogue between practitioners and forming a broader, deepened valuable and meaningful picture of the world on the basis of these two previous steps. The main perspectives of Contemplative Studies are the creation of educational formats that include personal experience, the skills of creating a common field of meanings, and further, on the basis of embodied cognition, to better understand the nature of human consciousness. In the future, these discoveries should be applied in philosophy, in practice, art and other creative forms of human realization.
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