Religious Symbolism and the Human Mind
The purpose of this paper is to assess Durkheim’s approach to religion and the validity of the time-honoured principle of the social determination of mental representations. The thesis to be defended is that Durkheim was essentially right in understanding religious ritual as a symbolic language. But...
| Autore principale: | |
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| Tipo di documento: | Elettronico Articolo |
| Lingua: | Inglese |
| Verificare la disponibilità: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Caricamento...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Pubblicazione: |
2015
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| In: |
Method & theory in the study of religion
Anno: 2015, Volume: 27, Fascicolo: 1, Pagine: 82-96 |
| Altre parole chiave: | B
Cognition
Durkheim
mind
ritual
symbolism
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| Accesso online: |
Volltext (Publisher) |
| Riepilogo: | The purpose of this paper is to assess Durkheim’s approach to religion and the validity of the time-honoured principle of the social determination of mental representations. The thesis to be defended is that Durkheim was essentially right in understanding religious ritual as a symbolic language. But he was wrong both in his social deterministic theory of mental representations and in his definition of religion as an exclusively social phenomenon. As current evolutionary sciences have amply demonstrated, human mental architecture has been shaped by a long evolutionary process and cannot be easily reconfigured through cultural indoctrination. Two consequences can be derived from this. First, religious ideas can successfully colonise human minds thanks to their ability to parasitize on biologically evolved human cognitive structures. Second, due to their counterintuitive properties, this colonisation can only succeed if those ideas are culturally transmitted through a special language. |
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| Descrizione fisica: | Online-Ressource |
| ISSN: | 1570-0682 |
| Comprende: | In: Method & theory in the study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341326 |
