Kevin R. D. Shepherd

Kevin R. D. Shepherd (born in Cambridge, United Kingdom, in 1950) is a British writer, scholar, and philosopher. He has a history of interdisciplinary study which was conducted at Cambridge University Library from 1981-1993, where he was originally sponsored by the psychologist Robert Thouless. Shepherd’s first book, Psychology in Science (1983), provided a variety of cross-cultural and psychological perspectives related to the history of science. That annotated essay supported the ecological warnings of the Club of Rome, and ended with a pointed rebuttal of the philosophical relativism of Paul Feyerabend.
A philosophy of culture: interdisciplinary anthropography
In 1984, as a philosophical exercise, Kevin R. D. Shepherd formulated a new interdisciplinary approach to culture that he termed “polymathic anthropography,” though generally using the second word of this phrase as an abbreviation, which is not to be confused with the standard ethnographic use of that term. The relevant manuscript was later published as Meaning in Anthropos (1991). This was partly in critical response to the challenge of the influential anthropologist Marvin Harris in his book Cultural Materialism (1979) for rivals to formulate a coherent strategy. Shepherd proposed an alternative model to a materialist-reductionist-behaviourist approach to anthropos (humankind); one that utilised, in part, data from the neuroscientist Roger Sperry, which emphasizes that conscious mind can act upon matter in the brain and exert causal influence in the direction and control of behaviour.
Contrary to the cultural materialist model, Shepherd’s philosophy emphasizes the fundamental causal potency of mental events as a universal principle in cultural evolution, one that can affect the behaviour-stream beneficially or adversely, and hence there is an interconnected, and interactive, linkage between mind, behaviour, environment, and culture. In Shepherd’s view, “a sociocultural repertory of information, customs, speech traits, and laws - patterned by an aggregate of minds in one or more strata of the relevant socioculture - is subject to improvement or deterioration by a mind, a few minds, or a network of minds” (Meaning, p. 25). The discernment of “creativity potentials” and “dissolution potentials” (ibid., pp. 30ff.) becomes vital, whether in minority groups or sociocultures and religions. The complex subject of “minority repertories” is stressed, especially as these can develop into larger sociocultural manifestations but change for the worse (ibid., pp. 29-30).
The themes expressed in Part One of Meaning were adapted to “an interdisciplinary spectrum of critical surveys,” which comprises Part Two. Those surveys relate to evolutionism, anthropology, the history of science, the history of religions, psychology, the mind-brain issue, philosophy, and sociology. The author was in disagreement with the “talk about talk” associated with academic philosophy. “In a lecture at Oxford in 1960, Professor Alfred Ayer affirmed that philosophers do not set out to describe, or even to explain the world, and still less to change the world. ‘Their concern is only with the way in which we speak about the world.’” (Ibid., p. 141). Shepherd was in reaction to the fragmentation of thought in evidence amongst mutually exclusive specialist disciplines. In contrast to Ayer, he asserted that “the fundamental purpose of philosophy is … to find sufficient answers to evolutionary problems and difficult situations; philosophy should chart the bases of experience and living, which is an empirical pursuit in its own right” (ibid., p. 135).
Shepherd currently refers to “interdisciplinary anthropography” in the context of a philosophy of culture. He is not concerned to promote a “science of culture,” deeming this superfluous, and emphasizes the provisional nature of his early formulations. His identity with a philosophical role is evident.
Critical assessment of “perennial philosophy”
In The Resurrection of Philosophy (1989), Shepherd demonstrated a further philosophical application to psychology, education, ecology, and evolution, amongst other subjects. That work included a lengthy closing chapter on the “perennial philosophy.” He is here both sympathetic to, and critical of, the perenniality theme, and viewing some variants in terms of perennial folly. The framework is very different to the exegesis of commentators like Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Frithjof Schuon, who are cited. Shepherd does not deny a perennial philosophy; what he does instead is strongly query the simplistic assumptions which have attached to this popular subject. Shepherd’s version is rather more complex than is usually the case. Too many questionable parties have claimed or implied perennial honours during the twentieth century, and serious researchers cannot be expected to endorse the “perennial” fantasies.
The term perenni philosophia was first used by the sixteenth century Christian theologian Agostino Steuco, and the underlying theme has since come to designate a recurrent, and purportedly consensus, form of philosophical insight or mysticism concerning the nature of reality that has manifested historically throughout all epochs and cultures. This theme was popularized by the novelist Aldous Huxley. Shepherd has contested the subsequent psychedelic tendency of Huxley and has also challenged the notion that experiential perception of the nature of reality is similar or identical in all cases associated with the concept of perenniality. He argues that there are both shallow and profound forms of philosophical and mystical insight, with many contrasts in-between; those distinctions, therefore, need to be taken into account for any realistic appraisal of “perennial philosophy.”
“The perennial philosophy very quickly becomes perennial folly in the minds and behaviour of those lacking in a basic sense of discrimination as to what leads where” (Resurrection of Philosophy, p. 173).
The perennial theme received further critical assessment in Some Philosophical Critiques and Appraisals (2004), especially pp. 1-8, where the author observes, for instance, how “the neo-Huxleyan notion that the perennial philosophy is somehow a ‘pure stream’ rising above religious forms has led many hippies and bohemians to believe that they represent this purity” (ibid., p. 5). Shepherd adopts a wide-ranging format in that same work, and is concerned with many other themes also.
Studies in the history of religions
A salient feature of Shepherd’s output has provided data from the history of religions. That tendency is demonstrated in Minds and Sociocultures Vol. One (1995), being the first part of a two-volume project (Vol.2 unpublished). This lengthy work is devoted to Iranist and Indological research, encompassing Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and Jainism. Shepherd is in disagreement with the phenomenological approach of Mircea Eliade, though he respects the scholarship of that academic commentator (Minds, pp. 7-18). Shepherd instead opts for a “sociological” approach, without eschewing factors of meaning. He pursues factual context, which may involve negotiating interpretations based upon religious doctrine or ideation.
His treatment of the legendary Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) recognizes the divergences of scholarly interpretation, which defy any simplistic popular version. He also supplies an account of Sassanian era developments in relation to the Mazdean priesthood, the Manichaean reaction, and the obscure Mazdakite radicals. He indicates the complexities in this very difficult field of fragmented data. Here as elsewhere, he cites approvingly from numerous specialist scholars, though occasionally expressing a disagreement, especially where contrasting scholarly opinions are in evidence.
His presentation of Hinduism, again based on specialist sources, affords a strong focus on the Vedic era and the resultant phase associated with the texts known as Upanishads. The subsequent six classical systems of brahmanical philosophy are also detailed, including Vedanta and Patanjali Yoga. He depicts the strong contrast between the Vedantic exponents Shankara and Ramanuja, representing advaita (non-dualism) and vishishtadvaita (negated non-dualism, or theism) respectively. He offers a sympathetic assessment of the more elusive Sankhya system of “psychology and evolutionism,” a system rejected by Shankara. The pronounced difficulties in recovering the original are stressed. “The framework of extant Sankhya metaphysics may be considered skeletal, and therefore liable to misinterpretation” (Minds, p. 694).
The complex ascetic tradition of Jainism, noted for non-violence to all creatures, is not commonly described or appreciated, and is obscure by comparison with Hinduism and Buddhism. Shepherd attempts to penetrate the legend and context of Vardhamana Mahavira (Minds, pp. 762ff.), traditionally dated to the sixth century BC, and who lived during the era of shramana philosophers in North India. This effort involves coming to terms with the shramana phenomenon, the more relevant because Gautama Buddha emerged from the same milieu. “During the era of Mahavira and Gautama, there emerged new political states with an increased economic power and administrative efficiency. The brahmanical tradition had become an hereditary priesthood, and was unable to satisfy religious feelings of both the nobility and the people at large” (ibid., pp. 726-7).
Shepherd also produced biographies of recent Eastern mystics, specifically Sai Baba of Shirdi, Upasni Maharaj, Hazrat Babajan, Sheriar Mundegar Irani, and Meher Baba. A Sufi Matriarch (1986) was the first book on Hazrat Babajan, a liberal Muslim Sufi of Pathan blood who died at Pune, reputedly a centenarian. Sheriar Irani was the Zoroastrian father of Meher Baba, and an émigré to India from Central Iran. These diverse entities converged in the intercultural tradition of mysticism occurring in the Maharashtra region of India, a tradition which Shepherd has substantially assisted to document. According to Shepherd, Meher Baba, an Iranian Liberal (1988) is a non-sectarian work. Shepherd is here critical of both the well known aspersions of Paul Brunton and the idiosyncrasies of devotees. “Though Meher Baba has sometimes been misnomered as the ‘Indian messiah,’ he was actually of pure Iranian blood; this Iranian background grants a context rather different from that often associated with him” (Iranian Liberal, p. 6).
Gurus Rediscovered (1986) was the first book to stress the Muslim Sufi background of Sai Baba of Shirdi, and later acknowledged as such by the two leading academic researchers in that field, namely Antonio Rigopoulos and Marianne Warren. An updated and extended version of that work was published as Investigating the Sai Baba Movement (2005), which now included Meher Baba as the Irani Zoroastrian disciple of the Hindu guru Upasni Maharaj. Three appendices reported allegations made by ex-devotees about the controversial Sathya Sai Baba, who early claimed to be the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi. The phrase “Sai Baba Movement” appeared in scholastic literature because of the influential association of the two Sai entities in some directions.
In terms of the Iranian heritage, in From Oppression to Freedom (1988), Shepherd highlighted aspects of the Kaivan school, named after the Zoroastrian Azar Kaivan, who emigrated from the Safavid oppression in Iran to Mughal India in the late sixteenth century. This complex school originated in the Zoroastrian community, but significantly interacted with the ishraqi philosophy that was becoming influential in the Islamic sector. That philosophy derived from the twelfth century Iranian mystic Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi. Shepherd accordingly referred to the Zoroastrian variant as “Kaivani-ishraqi,” and was the first British author since the nineteenth century to salvage this intercultural mystical tradition, which had been earlier rejected due to an exotic associated text (Desatir) interpreted as a forgery.
The coverage of religions was extended in Some Philosophical Critiques and Appraisals (2004), which shows the same attention to specialist sources. The contents include Zen (Chan) Buddhism, Indian religion, Neoplatonism, and Christianity. Shepherd here follows scholarly revisionist versions of early Zen tradition and legend, and conveys that “from a very early date in China, small Chan groupings of teachers and disciples were in a process of adaptation, expansion, and sectarian embellishments” (Philosophical Critiques, p. 106). Specialists have dilated upon the embellishments and discrepancies, such as the observation that “Chan antiritualism remains essentially a ritual move” (ibid., and note 301, citing Bernard Faure).
However, Shepherd is evidently sympathetic to aspects of monastic life in the early Chan milieu, which was more closely related to the original Indian Buddhist model of dhyana (meditation) than in the later expansion and transplantation to Japan. “Dhyana (chan) did not always cure ignoble traits, and could be used as a status tag in urban environments” (Philos. Critiques, pp. 108-9). He also mentioned the more well known twentieth century debate between the Chinese scholar Hu Shih and the Japanese academic D. T. Suzuki, a dispute which revolved around the historicity of Zen that the latter dismissed as a priority. Zen was above history, asserted Suzuki, which transpired to be a controversial standpoint.
The chapter on Indian religion mainly relates to Hinduism, though Islamic and Sikh ingredients are also present. Shepherd revisits the monolithic figure of Shankara, though subsequently “Advaita exposition became inseparable from a burgeoning monastic system in which there was probably more punditry and pomp than ‘realization’” (ibid., p. 143). The author also investigates mysticism of the lower classes, and more specifically, the medieval Sant (saint) trends in North India and Maharashtra which employed vernacular languages instead of Sanskrit. Most of these people belonged to the lowest caste of shudras, and some of them were untouchables (outside the caste system). A number of women were included. Sants were opposed to the elite brahman caste, and “effectively bridged the gap between Hindu and Muslim sociocultures” (ibid., p. 145).
A famous (and legendary) Sant was the fifteenth century Muslim weaver Kabir, who was averse to both the dogmatism of Muslim theologians (ulama) and the bizarre practises of Yogis. Also profiled by Shepherd is Nanak, an outspoken Hindu Sant (of some caste status) who inspired the Sikh religion arising in the sixteenth century Punjab. Nanak was “probably the most important” Sant in view of this new religion (ibid., p. 151). Nanak “was familiar with the Nath Yogis, whom he frequently encountered, and whose supposed occult powers he regarded as futile” (ibid.). Nanak also dismissed Hindu pundits, whose scriptural recitals and ritualism he considered to be “inspired by mundane self-interest” (ibid.).
The Indian chapter closes with the juxtaposition of Ramana Maharshi and Aurobindo Ghose, the two most famous Hindu saints living at the end of the British regime. Ramana was a brahman exemplar of Advaita Vedanta in South India, and rather more factually documented than the medieval Sants. “He did not criticize or condemn caste norms, though it is evident that he was not a typical representative of conservative brahman psychology” (ibid., p. 157). Aurobindo had quite a different teaching, being “a Shakta who rebutted traditional Vedanta” (ibid., p.153). Aurobindo expounded the innovative Integral Yoga, which aimed at a spiritualization of the world by the activation of Supermind. “He tried much harder than many other gurus to transform his own life, and his retiring disposition is much to his credit” (ibid., p. 160). The commentator is sceptical about the influence of Supermind on the Esalen Institute in California, where Aurobindo became a figurehead, mismatched to the surfeit of new age workshops.
Shepherd duly resorts to classicist sources for Plotinus, whom he presents favourably, and in contrast to exegetical drawbacks associated with Iamblichus. “Despite the popular notion that later Neoplatonism represents a continuation of his teaching, there is no justification for such an assumption, save in the case of Porphyry, whose output contrasts with that of the theurgistic Iamblichus” (Philos. Critiques, p. 187).
The compact treatment of Christianity (ibid., pp. 190-222) is nevertheless detailed. This moves from Coptic and Irish monasticism to the Neoplatonist philosopher John Scottus Eriugena, who was largely incomprehensible to contemporaries in ninth century Gaul. The account moves on to Francis of Assisi and the contrasting Thomas Aquinas, and also Roger Bacon, the outspoken Franciscan friar who championed secular learning against theologians. The commentary proceeds to the Renaissance era, referring critically to the magical preoccupations of the scholarly priest Marsilio Ficino, whom Shepherd says was misled by the theurgy of Iamblichus and Hermetic text. The scrying tendencies of the eccentric English mathematician John Dee are treated at more length as an aberration; Dee believed himself to be an adept in the arcane, although he was deceived by the unscrupulous occultist Edward Kelley, a frequenter of brothels who entertained designs upon Dee’s hapless wife. “Dee believed that everything Kelley reported in scrying sessions came from the angels” (ibid., p. 217). The philosopher Rene Descartes emerges as “the man who really ousted occultism” (ibid., p. 219), though “often considered inferior to Lord Bacon by empiricists who snub rationalism” (ibid.).
Shepherd distinguishes mysticism from occultism, which surfaced strongly in the later figure of Aleister Crowley, the promoter of “paganism” who urged “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” and who became addicted to heroin (ibid., pp. 18ff.). The affinity of Crowley with some Nietzschean concepts is mentioned. Shepherd repudiates the ideas of Superman, will to power, and slave morality that were elaborated by Friedrich Nietzsche, who regarded one of his own books as the most exalted in existence (ibid., p. 243), namely Thus Spake Zarathustra, which has nothing to do with the Zoroastrian figurehead.
Citizen philosophy
In recent years, Shepherd has referred to his output in terms of citizen philosophy, distinguishing this from his earlier phase of library study. He was for long averse to any representation on the web, which he still regards as an unsatisfactory media for education, dominated by American capitalism which has failed to implement adequate safeguards against, e.g., cyberstalking. His first website did not appear until 2007. Prior to that, and in reaction to the marketplace mentality of commercial publishing, he created the small independent publishing imprint known as Citizen Initiative. The underlying principle being that the citizen has a democratic right to publish relevant material that is not dictated by a commercial agenda.
Under the Citizen Initiative auspice, he self-published the forthright book Pointed Observations (2005), in which the term “citizen philosopher” appears in the sub-title. A diverse range of subjects are incorporated, of both sociological and philosophical relevance. A critique of David Hume, and a sympathetic assessment of Baruch Spinoza, is accompanied by further reflections on the Club of Rome output, which had since been vindicated against critics of ecology. In the same work, Shepherd is concerned to oppose the drugs lobby and the closely associated alternative therapies of Stanislav Grof. The commercial “workshop” vogue of the Esalen Institute is contested as a form of miseducation, and one spreading to Britain where it is known to have demonstrated repression in relation to dissidents. In this respect, Shepherd has expressed confrontation with the Findhorn Foundation and the allied Scientific and Medical Network.
The integral philosophy of Ken Wilber is a topic of dispute in the interpretation of religion, science, and philosophy. In another direction, Shepherd has contributed a lengthy web article on issues, here incorporating an argument for self-publishing, with due qualifications as to standard and content.
Since 2004, the designation of “citizen sociology” has occasionally been used by the subject, who clearly states that “citizen sociology is of amateur status and does not claim to be expertly scientific, but merely to address in a critical spirit pressing matters requiring attention” (Some Philosophical Critiques, p. ix). Shepherd has also employed the official word sociography as a related description of the critical necessity, a word which appears in his article on the analysis of crime and yob hazard in contemporary Britain. This article comprises a confrontation with skinheads, punks, and the more recent yobs notorious for knife crimes which have aroused strong public reactions.
Bibliography
*Psychology in Science: Towards a Universal Science of Human Progress (Cambridge: Anthropographia Publications, 1983), ISBN 0950868000
*A Sufi Matriarch: Hazrat Babajan (Cambridge: Anthropographia Publications, 1985), ISBN 0950868019
*Gurus Rediscovered: Biographies of Sai Baba of Shirdi and Upasni Maharaj of Sakori (Cambridge: Anthropographia Publications, 1986), ISBN 0950868027
*From Oppression to Freedom: A Study of the Kaivani Gnostics (Cambridge: Anthropographia Publications, 1988), ISBN 0950868043
*The Resurrection of Philosophy (Cambridge: Anthropographia Publications, 1989), ISBN 0950868035
*Meher Baba, an Iranian Liberal (Cambridge: Anthropographia Publications, 1988), ISBN 0950868051
*Meaning in Anthropos: Anthropography as an Interdisciplinary Science of Culture (Cambridge: Anthropographia Publications, 1991), ISBN 095086806X
*Minds and Sociocultures Vol. One: Zoroastrianism and the Indian Religions (Cambridge: Philosophical Press, 1995), ISBN 0952508907
*Some Philosophical Critiques and Appraisals: An investigation of perennial philosophy, cults, occultism, psychotherapy, and postmodernism (Dorchester, Dorset: Citizen Initiative, 2004), ISBN 0952508923
*Pointed Observations: Critical Reflections of a Citizen Philosopher on Contemporary Pseudomysticism, Alternative Therapy, David Hume, Spinoza, and Other Subjects (Dorchester, Dorset: Citizen Initiative, 2005), ISBN 0952508915
*Investigating the Sai Baba Movement: A Clarification of Misrepresented Saints and Opportunism (Dorchester, Dorset: Citizen Initiative, 2005), ISBN 0952508931

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