Religion, Cognition, and the Myth of Conscious Will

Characteristic of the recent cognitive approach to religion (CSR) is the thesis that religious discourse and practice are rooted in an inveterate human propensity to explain events in terms of agent causality. This thesis readily lends itself to the critical understanding of religious belief as &quo...

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Veröffentlicht in:Method & theory in the study of religion
1. VerfasserIn: Nicholson, Hugh (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: Brill [2019]
In: Method & theory in the study of religion
Jahr: 2019, Band: 31, Heft: 2, Seiten: 91-119
normierte Schlagwort(-folgen):B Kognitive Religionswissenschaft / Theory of mind / Willensfreiheit
IxTheo Notationen:AA Religionswissenschaft
AB Religionsphilosophie; Religionskritik; Atheismus
AE Religionspsychologie
VA Philosophie
weitere Schlagwörter:B Agency
B Consciousness
B Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR)
B Theory of mind
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Zusammenfassung:Characteristic of the recent cognitive approach to religion (CSR) is the thesis that religious discourse and practice are rooted in an inveterate human propensity to explain events in terms of agent causality. This thesis readily lends itself to the critical understanding of religious belief as "our intuitive psychology run amok." This effective restriction of the scientific critique of agent causality to notions of supernatural agency appears arbitrary, however, in light of evidence from cognitive and social psychology that our sense of human agency, including our own, is interpretive in nature. In this paper I argue that a cognitive approach to religion that extends the critique of agent causality to the folk psychological experience of conscious will is able to shed light on several characteristically religious phenomena, such as spirit possession, ritual action, and spontaneous action in Zen Buddhism.
ISSN:1570-0682
Bezug:Kritik in "REDRUM (2019)"
Enthält:Enthalten in: Method & theory in the study of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341437