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/lp/brill/western-esotericism-and-cognitive-science-of-religion-rtNvfzDTTg
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- Publisher
- Brill
- Copyright
- Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
- ISSN
- 1567-9896
- eISSN
- 1570-0593
- DOI
- 10.1163/15700593-01701005
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
1. Introduction: Cognitive Science of Religion and Western EsotericismWhy would cognitive science be relevant for history of religion or historiography in general and the study of western esotericism in particular? Two problems initially materialize when addressing this question. The first pertains to the concrete material analyzed by the historian and the relation between synchronic and diachronic analysis. Cognitive science studies the mechanisms of the human mind, so why can theories and models from this field possibly help the historian establish diachronic relations between discrete ideas and persons, and aid the analysis of mind-external material (texts and other material artifacts)? The second problem pertains to the relation between the particular and the universal. Studies of western esotericism aim at eliciting a particular and rather unique range of ideas allegedly constituting a counter-cultural (European) tradition. That is, it aims to understand something that is particular, whereas cognitive science is preoccupied with unraveling what is universally human. The question is, how theories and approaches aimed at the universal can enlighten the study of the particular without thereby eradicating the very uniqueness used to establish the field of inquiry in the first place.These two problems reveal a tension between a nomothetic approach that
Journal
Aries – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 2017