About Matthew Dasti

Matthew R. Dasti is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bridgewater State University.

3 Replies to “The Mental Autonomy Project (MAP) at Johannes Gutenberg University”

  1. Very good that Thomas Metzinger is taking this initiative and gained funding for it as well. Still, is it is just me, is it wrong to have a sense of disquiet about the uncritical way in which the whole de-culturing of classical meditation techinques in MBSR is accepted – a sleight of hand universalism by which you slip in a Buddha picture here and a gesture towards the traditions there, but then resolutely consider all these issues within the terms of a strictly defined disciplinary framework that pays no scholarly attention to Sanskrit/Pali/Tibetan texts and their rich conceptual and practical histories…?

  2. I share your concern in general for this sort of de-culturing, Ram. That said, my confidence is that in the long-term, it (and analogous things on a mass-level like uncontextualized appropriations in yoga “teacher-training” courses), will only have more people interested in learning about these traditions.

  3. Thanks for this announcment Matthew. As regards de-culturing concern, I just talked with Thomas Metzinger about the absence of Buddhist/Indian philosophy among the suggested areas of prospective projects, and he told me that he has no expertise in the field and he just coudn’t supervise a project with historical/textual focus. It’s just a PhD program šŸ™‚

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