On the Science of the Soul A Conversation with Seyyed Hossein Nasr

• Published in: The Journal of transpersonal psychology Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 191 - 209
• Main Author: Sotillos, Samuel Bendeck
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Stanford Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 01-07-2021
• Subjects: Anthologies; Awards & honors; Comparative religion; Conferences; Essays; Islam; Knowledge; Metaphysics; Philosophers; Philosophy; Public speaking; Science; Spirituality; Traditions
• ISSN: 0022-524X

Keywords: metaphysics, epistemological pluralism, psychology, human diversity, perennial philosophy, perennial psychology Seyyed Hossein Nasr (b. 1933) is University Professor of Islamic Studies at The George Washington University, in Washington, DC. Countless individuals had not only encountered the study of the world's religions through Huston Smith, but were introduced to the writings of perennialist authors such as Rene Guenon (1886-1951), Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947), Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998), and Titus Burckhardt (1908-1984), as well as others such as Martin Lings (1909-2005), Leo Schaya (1916-1985), Joseph Epes Brown (1920-2000), Marco Pallis (1895- 1989), Whitall N. Perry (1920-2005), William Stoddart (b. 1925), and Seyyed Hossein Nasr (b. 1933). Smith recognized Nasr's book Knowledge and the Sacred, which was based on his Gifford Lectures, as "one of the most important books of the twentieth century" (Smith, 2007, p. vii). (1993, p. 54) Nasr also elucidates how the perennial philosophy is intimately connected to metaphysics and embraces other disciplines, including psychology or the "science of the soul": The philosophia perennis possesses branches and ramifications pertaining to cosmology, anthropology, art and other disciplines, but at its heart lies pure metaphysics, if this latter term is understood..