Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Journal | Volume | Article

216864

Disembodied communication and religious experience

the online model

David S. Oderberg

pp. 381-397

Abstract

The idea of disembodied communication has received widespread discussion in the context of the various kinds of online interaction. Electronic mail is probably the purest form of text-based communication where interlocutors are present in mind rather than body. I argue that this online model provides a way of understanding and defending the possibility of a certain kind of public religious experience, contra the many critics of the very coherence of genuine religious experience. I introduce the concept of "telic possibility", a specific kind of modality, applying it to e-mail. I argue that we can reasonably move from the telic possibility of disembodied communication in mundane e-mail exchanges to the epistemic possibility of communication from a divine being in cases where the content of the messages is sufficiently extraordinary.

Publication details

Published in:

Ess Charles (2012) Philosophy & Technology 25 (3).

Pages: 381-397

DOI: 10.1007/s13347-011-0051-6

Full citation:

Oderberg David S. (2012) „Disembodied communication and religious experience: the online model“. Philosophy & Technology 25 (3), 381–397.