InPresence 0084: Vaihinger’s Philosophy of “As If”

InPresence host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). For many years he served as president of the non-profit Intuition Network, an organization dedicated to creating a world in which all people were supported and encouraged in developing inner intuitive abilities.

Here he describes the “As If” philosophy of Hans Vaihinger. He first learned of this approach when it was used as a justification for removing a resident at the Institute for the Study of Consciousness in Berkeley, CA. The philosophy suggests that — since we lack the means to validate or falsify many hypotheses in metaphysics, religion and related areas — the best test is to determine the pragmatic value of behaving “as if” they were true.

(Recorded on May 15, 2018)

To download an edited English transcript of InPresence 0084, go to https://bit.ly/32rsCdB

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