Escaping the Secular Enlightenment - But Slouching Toward Yugoslavia: A Response to Watson
This response agrees with Watson's first point that the Enlightenment interpretation of religion is no longer convincing as a neutral, therefore privileged, position. Watson rightly points out that Enlightenment assumptions make those who hold them today just as ethnocentric as other groups. Ho...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[1993]
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| In: |
The international journal for the psychology of religion
Year: 1993, Volume: 3, Issue: 1, Pages: 21-24 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | This response agrees with Watson's first point that the Enlightenment interpretation of religion is no longer convincing as a neutral, therefore privileged, position. Watson rightly points out that Enlightenment assumptions make those who hold them today just as ethnocentric as other groups. However, Watson's proposal for a new framework within which to study religion, although interesting, is not convincing. In order for the new framework to function, the Enlightenment tribe would have to give up its power and privileges, which is unlikely. In addition, Watson's proposal that religions and philosophies study each other in mutual interaction is unrealistic given that (a) groups, probably even more than individuals, are inhospitable to other groups studying them, because criticisms of various types are likely to emerge and (b) it assumes at least a limited consensus as to the nature of knowledge, in order for the dialogue to occur-but no such consensus exists today. Failure to resolve psychology's growing epistemological relativism may well mean the disintegration of psychology as a discipline. |
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| ISSN: | 1532-7582 |
| Reference: | Kritik von "Apologetics and Ethnocentrism (1993)"
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: The international journal for the psychology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1207/s15327582ijpr0301_2 |