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Zusatztext Tom Lawson is one of the creators of the field of cognitive approaches to religious thought and behavior, and one of the main contributors to what is now an established discipline, with journals, meetings, and textbooks. Lawson was also a pioneer in the formal study of ritual behavior. The essays reflect the breadth and depth of his insights about the relations between human mental capacities and cultural variation. Informationen zum Autor E. Thomas Lawson is Professor Emeritus at Western Michigan University, USA. He is also Honorary Professor and Research Scientist at the Institute of Cognition and Culture, Queen’s University Belfast, UK. Klappentext Uniting Thomas Lawson's essays on the cognitive science of religion, this volume explores theoretical issues in the study of cultural phenomena such as religion, the role of imagination, and the experiments that emerge from these theories. The book begins with Lawson's influential essay "Towards a Cognitive Science of Religion," which was the first to employ the phrase, and has since become widely adopted in many different disciplines. It signals to scholars in the humanities that the cognitive revolution has finally reached them and serves to introduce them to the world of science. The rest of the book focuses on theoretical issues in the study of cultural phenomena and describes experiments by scholars working on the connections between cognition and culture. Described as "the grandfather of the cognitive science of religion," Lawson offers a unique perspective on the development of the field and the principles that underlie it, which will be relevant to both newcomers and established scholars. Vorwort Unites Thomas Lawson's essays on the cognitive science of religion into a cohesive volume, with a special emphasis on the role of the imagination. Zusammenfassung Uniting Thomas Lawson's essays on the cognitive science of religion, this volume explores theoretical issues in the study of cultural phenomena such as religion, the role of imagination, and the experiments that emerge from these theories. The book begins with Lawson's influential essay “Towards a Cognitive Science of Religion,” which was the first to employ the phrase, and has since become widely adopted in many different disciplines. It signals to scholars in the humanities that the cognitive revolution has finally reached them and serves to introduce them to the world of science. The rest of the book focuses on theoretical issues in the study of cultural phenomena and describes experiments by scholars working on the connections between cognition and culture. Described as "the grandfather of the cognitive science of religion," Lawson offers a unique perspective on the development of the field and the principles that underlie it, which will be relevant to both newcomers and established scholars. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Toward Cognitive Science of Religion PART I: Theoretical Issues in the Cognitive Science of Religion 2. Magic Bullets and Complex Theories 3. The Wedding of Psychology, Ethnography, and History: Methodological Bigamy or Tripartite Free Love? 4. Cognitive Categories, Cultural Forms, and Ritual Structures 5. Evoked and Transmitted Culture PART II: Cognition and the Imagination 6. Cognitive Constraints on Imagining Other Worlds 7. The Explanation of Myth and Myth as Explanation 8. Psychological Perspectives on Agency 9. How to Create a Religion PART III: Cognition, Culture, and History 10. History in Science 11. The Cognitive Science of Religion and the Growth of Knowledge 12. Counterintuitive Notions and the Problem of Transmission: The Relevance of Cognitive Science for the Study of History 13. Experimental Adventures Conclusion In...
