The Body as the Ground of Religion, Science, and Self

The human body is both religious subject and scientific object, the manifest locus of both religious gnosis and secular cognition. Embodiment provides the basis for a rich cross–fertilization between cognitive science and comparative religion, but cognitive studies must return to their empiricist sc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Kovach, Judith (Autor)
Tipo de documento: Electrónico Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
Verificar disponibilidad: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Publicado: 2002
En: Zygon
Año: 2002, Volumen: 37, Número: 4, Páginas: 941-961
Otras palabras clave:B Cognitive Science
B Liminality
B bipedalism
B anthropology and the body
B Ritual
B Human Evolution
B Cognition
B Corporificación
B Anthropology of religion
B Iblis
B Phenomenology
B Adam
B cognitive content of the body
B Experience
B Religious Experience
B Homo Religiosus
B Selfhood
B Embodied Cognition
B Islamic myth
Acceso en línea: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:No electrónico
Descripción
Sumario:The human body is both religious subject and scientific object, the manifest locus of both religious gnosis and secular cognition. Embodiment provides the basis for a rich cross–fertilization between cognitive science and comparative religion, but cognitive studies must return to their empiricist scientific roots by reembodying subjectivity, thus spanning the natural bridge between the two fields. Referencing the ritual centrality and cognitive content of the body, I suggest a materialist but nonreductionist construct of the self as a substantial cognitive embodiment that embraces not just perception and cognition, mind and spirit, but the forceful physicality of the moving body. Proprioception of the body's moving mass constitutes a mode of knowing that resonates strongly with the experience of self, not only across religious traditions but also within the physical sciences. By way of illustration, two directions are suggested in which a construct of the self as a substantial cognitive embodiment might lead us: first, a body–based interpretation of the Islamic myth of Adam and Iblis that reveals an internal substantiality as constitutive of the divinely imaged Self, and second, a new, religious direction for human evolutionary theory based on the implications of an embodied intentionality.
ISSN:1467-9744
Obras secundarias:Enthalten in: Zygon
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/1467-9744.00466