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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Publié dans:Method & theory in the study of religion
Auteur principal: Nicholson, Hugh (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Brill [2019]
Dans: Method & theory in the study of religion
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Kognitive Religionswissenschaft / Théorie de l'esprit / Libre arbitre
Classifications IxTheo:AA Sciences des religions
AB Philosophie de la religion
AE Psychologie de la religion
VA Philosophie
Sujets non-standardisés:B Théorie de l'esprit
B Agency
B Consciousness
B Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR)
Accès en ligne: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Résumé: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
Référence:Kritik in "REDRUM (2019)"
Contient:Enthalten in: Method & theory in the study of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341437