About the Book
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: Cognitive science of religion and its philosophical implications, Helen De Cruz (Department of Philosophy, VU University Amsterdam) and Ryan Nichols (Department of Philosophy, California State University, Fullerton, and Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition, & Culture, University of British Columbia)
2. Is religion or science debunked by the evolution of cognitive faculties? John Wilkins (Honorary Fellow at the School of Historical and Philosophical Sciences, The University of Melbourne)
3. A cognitive psychological account of reasoning about ritual efficacy, Cristine H. Legare (Associate Professor of Psychology, Cognition, Culture, and Development Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Texas) and Rachel Watson-Jones (Postdoctoral fellow, Cognition, Culture, and Development Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Texas)
4. Atheism, inference and intuition, Kelly James Clark (Senior Research Fellow, Kaufman Interfaith Institute, Grand Valley State University)
5. Cognitive science, evil and God, John Teehan (Professor of Religion, Hofstra University)
6. How to witness your own funeral: “The folk” respond to Anthony Flew, Mitch Hodge (Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Amarillo College)
7. How do philosophers evaluate natural theological arguments? An experimental philosophical investigation, Helen De Cruz (Assistant professor, Department of Philosophy, VU University Amsterdam) and Johan De Smedt (Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Philosophy, Ghent University)
8. Remembering past lives, Claire White (Assistant Professor, California State University, Northridge, Robert Kelly (California State University, Northridge) and Shaun Nichols (Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona)
9. An ecological theory of gods' minds, Benjamin Grant Purzycki and Rita McNamara (Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition & Culture, University of British Columbia)
10. Rethinking the significance of moral and religious diversity, Jason Marsh (Assistant professor of Philosophy, St Olaf College) and Jon Marsh (St. Louis University)
Index
About the Author :
Helen De Cruz is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, VU University, Amsterdam
Ryan Nichols is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at California State University, Fullerton, USA, and Research Affiliate, Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition & Culture, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Review :
It is worth noting that I am an experimental philosopher and not a philosopher of religion or a student of religion more generally. … That said, I quite enjoyed the collection. It provides a fascinating overview of the cognitive science of religion (CSR) -- an interdisciplinary field applying methods from cognitive and evolutionary sciences to the study of religious belief and behavior -- and how some of the lessons from this field bear on philosophy of religion. … An engaging volume.
[This is] a collection that both offers philosophers access to a wealth of scientific information, and sketches novel, interdisciplinary approaches to longstanding philosophical problems concerning religious belief. Anyone not acquainted with philosophically relevant studies of religious belief in cognitive science and psychology will learn a great deal from this book, as will those unfamiliar with recent and promising applications of experimental philosophy to the study of religion. [...] This collection is important for the developing fields of CSR and experimental philosophy of religion. I hope that it is read, discussed, and encourages philosophers to further engage with empirical data when considering traditional problems in the philosophy of religion.
