Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion: A Head Start
Ebook
Robert N. McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson are considered the founders of the field of the cognitive science of religion. Since its inception over twenty years ago, the cognitive science of religion has raised questions about the philosophical foundations and implications of such a scientific approach. This volume from McCauley, including chapters co-authored by Lawson, is the first book-length project to focus on such questions, resulting in a compelling volume that addresses fundamental questions that any scholar of religion should ask.
The essays collected in this volume are those that initially defined this scientific field for the study of religion. These essays deal with issues of methodology, reductionism, resistance to the scientific study of religion, and other criticisms that have been lodged against the cognitive science of religion. The new final chapter sees McCauley reflect on developments in this field since its founding.
Tackling these debates head on and in one place for the first time, this volume belongs on the shelf of every researcher interested in this now established approach to the study of religion within a range of disciplines, including religious studies, philosophy, anthropology and the psychology of religion.
The two founding figures of the cognitive science of religion reflect on the development of and debates within this scientific approach to the study of religion.
The only up-to-date book to discuss the philosophical foundations of the cognitive science of religion
Written by two leading experts in the field, who initiated the field 20 years ago
Interdisciplinary and of interest to scholars of religion, philosophy, anthropology, science and psychology
List of Figures
Preface
1. Explanatory Pluralism and the Cognitive Science of Religion: Or Why Scholars in Religious Studies Should Stop Worrying about Reductionism
2. Interpretation and Explanation: Problems and Promise in the Study of Religion (with E. Thomas Lawson)
3. Crisis of Conscience, Riddle of Identity: Making Space for a Cognitive Approach to Religious Phenomena (with E. Thomas Lawson)
4. Who Owns 'Culture'? (with E. Thomas Lawson)
5. Overcoming Barriers to a Cognitive Psychology of Religion
6. Twenty-Five Years In: Landmark Empirical Findings in the Cognitive Science of Religion
Bibliography
Index
By showing what kind of explanations CSR provides, McCauley and Lawson can be of help for philosophical discussions on CSR.
…a valuable and distinctive volume. Veterans and novices to CSR-especially those in religious studies-will all benefit from studying it.
This collection of influential essays in the cognitive science of religion builds a compelling case for explanatory pluralism, advocating science (to redress an imbalance in religious studies) but not scientism, methodological eclecticism not exclusivism, and (at times) reductionism but not eliminativism. McCauley writes with characteristic clarity, pace, balance, and passion. This book should be obligatory reading not only for religion scholars but for everyone in the humanities and social sciences.
From the nestors of the cognitive science of religion (CSR), their long-awaited methodological and philosophical reflections on the foundations of CSR. They represent and embody the admirable multidisciplinary competence so necessary in analyzing religion. In the face of disciplinary snubs from conservative circles, McCauley and Lawson have forged their own path with zeal, good humor and philosophical savvy. This collection of essays is fitting witness to their visions of a new science.
Robert McCauley has long been known for pioneering work in the philosophical foundations of the discipline, and the reprinted papers in this paperback edition bear witness to that.
- Title: Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion: A Head Start
- Authors: Robert N. McCauley, E. Thomas Lawson
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2017
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781350030336, 9781350105867, 1350105864, 1350030333
- Resource ID: LLS:9781350030336
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-09T01:34:21Z
Robert N. McCauley is William Rand Kenan Jr. University Professor of Philosophy, as well as Associated Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Anthropology, in the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture, at Emory University, USA.
E. Thomas Lawson is Honorary Professor and Research Scientist at the Institute of Cognition and Culture at the School of History and Anthropology, Queen's University-Belfast, Northern Ireland, as well as Professor Emeritus of the Department for Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University, USA.