Creating Consilience

Author: Edward Slingerland
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199794391
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 467

Book Description
Calls for a "consilient" or "vertically integrated" approach to the study of human mind and culture have, for the most part, been received by scholars in the humanities with either indifference or hostility. One reason for this is that consilience has often been framed as bringing the study of humanistic issues into line with the study of non-human phenomena, rather than as something to which humanists and scientists contribute equally. The other major reason that consilience has yet to catch on in the humanities is a dearth of compelling examples of the benefits of adopting a consilient approach. Creating Consilience is the product of a workshop that brought together internationally-renowned scholars from a variety of fields to address both of these issues. It includes representative pieces from workshop speakers and participants that examine how adopting such a consilient stance -- informed by cognitive science and grounded in evolutionary theory -- would concretely impact specific topics in the humanities, examining each topic in a manner that not only cuts across the humanities-natural science divide, but also across individual humanistic disciplines. By taking seriously the fact that science-humanities integration is a two-way exchange, this volume takes a new approach to bridging the cultures of science and the humanities. The editors and contributors formulate how to develop a new shared framework of consilience beyond mere interdisciplinarity, in a way that both sides can accept.

Consecrating Science

Author: Lisa H. Sideris
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520294998
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Book Description
"In Consecrating Science, Lisa Sideris offers a searing critique of 'The New Cosmology,' a complex network of overlapping movements that claim to bring together science and spirituality, all in the name of saving our planet from impending ecological collapse. Highly regarded in many academic circles, these movements have been endorsed by numerous prominent scholars, scientists, historians, and educators. Their express goal--popularized in numerous books, films, TED talks, YouTube videos, podcasts, and even introductory courses at places like Harvard or Washington University--is to instill in readers and audiences a profound sense of being at home in the universe, thereby fostering environmentally responsible behavior. Whether promoted as 'The New Story,' 'The Universe Story,' or 'The Epic of Evolution,' they all offer humanity a new sacred story, a common creation myth for modern times and for all people: the evolutionary unfolding of the universe from the Big Bang to the present. Evolutionary science and religious cosmology--together at last! But as Sideris shows, however, the New Cosmology actually underwrites a staggeringly anthropocentric vision of the world. Instead of cultivating an ethic of respect for nature, the project of 'consecrating science' only increases human arrogance and indifference to nonhuman life. Going back to the work of Rachel Carson and other naturalists, the author shows how a sense of wonder, rooted in the natural world and our own ethical impulses, helps foster environmental attitudes and policies that protect our planet"--Provided by publishe

On the Universality of What Is Not

Author: William Franke
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268108838
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 586

Book Description
Branching out from his earlier works providing a history and a theory of apophatic thinking, William Franke's newest book pursues applications across a variety of communicative media, historical periods, geographical regions, and academic disciplines—moving from the literary humanities and cultural theory and politics to more empirical fields such as historical anthropology, evolutionary biology, and cognitive science. On the Universality of What Is Not: The Apophatic Turn in Critical Thinking is an original philosophical reflection that shows how intransigent deadlocks debated in each of these arenas can be broken through thanks to the uncanny insights of apophatic vision. Leveraging Franke's distinctive method of philosophical, religious, and literary thinking and practice, On the Universality of What Is Not proposes a radically unsettling approach to answering (or suspending) perennial questions of philosophy and religion, as well as to dealing with some of our most pressing dilemmas at present at the university and in the socio-political sphere. In a style of exposition that is as lucid as it is poetic, deep-rooted tensions between alterity and equality in all these areas are exposed and transcended.

The Question of Methodological Naturalism

Author: Jason N. Blum
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004372431
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
The traditions and institutions that we call religions abound with references to the supernatural: ancestral spirits, karma, the afterlife, miracles, revelation, deities, etc. How are students of religion to approach the behaviors, doctrines, and beliefs that refer to such phenomena, which by their very nature are supposed to defy the methods of empirical research and the theories of historical scholarship? That is the question of methodological naturalism. The Question of Methodological Naturalism offers ten thoughtful engagements with that perennial question for the academic study of religion. Contributors include established senior scholars and newer voices propounding a range of perspectives, resulting in both surprising points of convergence and irreconcilable differences in how our shared discipline should be conceptualized and practiced.

Body and Mind in Motion

Author: Glenna Batson
Publisher: Intellect Books
ISBN: 178320236X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Book Description
Western contemporary dance and body-mind education have engaged in a pas de deux for more than four decades. The rich interchange of somatics and dance has altered both fields, but scholarship that substantiates these ideas through the findings of twentieth-century scientific advances has been missing. This book fills that gap and brings to light contemporary discoveries of neuroscience and somatic education as they relate to dance. Drawing from the burgeoning field of “embodiment”—itself an idea at the intersection of the sciences, humanities, arts, and technologies—Body and Mind in Motion highlights the relevance of somatic education within dance education, dance science, and body-mind studies.

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Volume 2

Author: David M. Buss
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118755804
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 640

Book Description
A complete exploration of the real-world applications and implications of evolutionary psychology The exciting and sometimes controversial science of evolutionary psychology is becoming increasingly relevant to more fields of study than ever before. The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Volume 2, Integrations provides students and researchers with new insight into how EP draws from, and is applied in, fields as diverse as economics, anthropology, neuroscience, genetics, and political science, among others. In this thorough revision and expansion of the groundbreaking handbook, luminaries in the field provide an in-depth exploration of the foundations of evolutionary psychology as they relate to public policy, consumer behavior, organizational leadership, and legal issues. Evolutionary psychology seeks to explain the reasons behind friendship, leadership, warfare, morality, religion, and culture — in short, what it means to be human. This enlightening text provides a foundational knowledgebase in EP, along with expert insights and the most up-to-date coverage of recent theories and findings. Explore the vast and expanding applications of evolutionary psychology Discover the psychology of human survival, mating parenting, cooperation and conflict, culture, and more Identify how evolutionary psychology is interwoven with other academic subjects and traditional psychological disciplines Discuss future applications of the conceptual tools of evolutionary psychology As the established standard in the field, The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Volume 2 is the definitive guide for every psychologist and student to understand the latest and most exciting applications of evolutionary psychology.

The Seductions of Darwin

Author: Matthew Rampley
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271079002
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 201

Book Description
The surge of evolutionary and neurological analyses of art and its effects raises questions of how art, culture, and the biological sciences influence one another, and what we gain in applying scientific methods to the interpretation of artwork. In this insightful book, Matthew Rampley addresses these questions by exploring key areas where Darwinism, neuroscience, and art history intersect. Taking a scientific approach to understanding art has led to novel and provocative ideas about its origins, the basis of aesthetic experience, and the nature of research into art and the humanities. Rampley’s inquiry examines models of artistic development, the theories and development of aesthetic response, and ideas about brain processes underlying creative work. He considers the validity of the arguments put forward by advocates of evolutionary and neuroscientific analysis, as well as its value as a way of understanding art and culture. With the goal of bridging the divide between science and culture, Rampley advocates for wider recognition of the human motivations that drive inquiry of all types, and he argues that our engagement with art can never be encapsulated in a single notion of scientific knowledge. Engaging and compelling, The Seductions of Darwin is a rewarding look at the identity and development of art history and its complicated ties to the world of scientific thought.

Literature’s Contributions to Scientific Knowledge

Author: Dario Maestripieri
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527528006
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 155

Book Description
The most important intellectual development in the academy in the 21st century has been the forging of new relationships between the sciences and the humanities and the realization that interdisciplinary scholarship holds the promise of the unification of all knowledge. This groundbreaking book shows how this can be fulfilled. Through a wide-ranging analysis of arguments concerning the complementarity of arts and sciences advanced by Schelling and Goethe and those about the cognitive value of literature articulated by contemporary philosophers, the book shows that literary fiction can contribute to the scientific understanding of human nature. With a careful and original examination of autobiographical material and literary texts, it demonstrates that European novelists such as Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Italo Svevo, and Elias Canetti conducted ambitious and innovative literary explorations of the human mind and human behavior using Darwinian theory as their scientific framework, and, in doing so, they anticipated the theoretical developments and empirical findings of cognitive, social, and evolutionary psychology by almost 100 years. The work of these novelists was largely misunderstood by literary scholars, but this book’s re-discovery and illustration of what these writers attempted to accomplish and how they did it show one important path leading to the future unification of all knowledge about the human condition.

Exchanges between Literature and Science from the 1800s to the 2000s

Author: Márcia Diana Fernandes Lemos
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443876054
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Book Description
This collection of essays responds to the intense interest that the relations between the discourses of literature (and other cultural practices) and those of science have obtained throughout various fields of study. Spanning a period between the mid-nineteenth century and the twenty-first century, the work collected here is firmly focused on the cultural significance of scientific discoveries and practices, and especially on the manifold representations of science and scientists in literature and the arts. Its four sections develop from an initial moment of dwindling indefiniteness of borders between literature and the sciences to the historical perception of an increasing divide between “the two cultures,” to use C.P. Snow’s influential expression, as well as calls for a form of convergence or “consilience” in Edward Wilson’s words. The final section turns to the medical sciences, a porous scientific discipline in relation to the humanities, which suggests that consilience can already be found partially in specific areas. As such, this collection contributes towards critically extending that integration through the discussion of key literary representations of science, its promises, and its problems.

Restoring the Human Context to Literary and Performance Studies

Author: Howard Mancing
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030890783
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Book Description
Restoring the Human Context to Literary and Performance Studies argues that much of contemporary literary theory is still predicated, at least implicitly, on outdated linguistic and psychological models such as post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and behaviorism, which significantly contradict current dominant scientific views. By contrast, this monograph promotes an alternative paradigm for literary studies, namely Contextualism, and in so doing highlights the similarities and differences among the sometimes-conflicting contemporary cognitive approaches to literature and performance, arguing not in favor of one over the other but for Contextualism as their common ground.