First published in 1967, The Transcendence of the Cave is the second in a series of Gifford Lectures on philosophical issues, and continues the themes of the first series entitled The Discipline of the Cave. In the opening chapters, J N Findlay sketches an ontology, an axiology and a theology which are ‘phenomenological’ in the sense of Husserl, as they attempt to show that a ‘firmament’ of logical and other values emerges out of the contingencies of first order liking and interest. The synthesis of these values in an object having many paradoxical, mystical-religious properties is also a necessary outcome of this ‘logic’. In the later chapters, the author attempts to construct an orderly picture of other worldly experiences and their objects based solely on the premise that these experiences must be such as to resolve the many philosophical surds that plague us in this life.

Contents

1. Foundations of the Realm of Reason and Spirit 2. The Realm of Notions and Meanings 3. The Realm of Values and Disvalues 4. Religion and Its Objects 5. The Collapse of the Realm of Reason and Spirit 6. Otherworldly Geography 7. The Noetic Cosmos 8. The Life of the Soul 9. The Life of God 10. Return to the Cave