DVPR47400:Theories of Religion as Philosophy of Mind
Winter term, 2006
Swift Hall 204
Fridays, 9:00-11:50
Instructor: Dan Arnold
Office phone: 702-8276
E-mail: d-arnold@uchicago.edu
Office hours: Swift 401A, Mondays and Tuesdays, 9:30-11:30 (or by arrangement);
for appointments during regular office hours, contact Susie McGee (Swift 201)
Objectives of the Course
The conception of this course is based on a general idea, and on a more particular hypothesis. The general idea is simply that a great deal of the literature commonly read by way of surveying influential "theories and methods in the study of religion" is philosophically pregnant, and that it would therefore be desirable to read some of this literature (as it is not commonly read) as philosophy. This is not only to propose reading this literature in conversation with other works commonly characterized as "philosophical," but to propose reading it philosophically -- that is, with an eye towards epistemological, ontological, metaphysical, and other such considerations. To say the latter is more generally to propose reading this literature with an eye towards the question (usefully regarded as the constitutively "philosophical" question) of what else one would be committed to in proposing any of these accounts as true.
The more particular hypothesis is that much of the literature that constitutes the field of religious studies (which perhaps most often reflects the disciplinary perspective of anthropology) is usefully understood in relation to philosophy of mind --whether as making specific contributions thereto, centrally presupposing commitments therein, or otherwise involving arguments or commitments that can be seen as relevant to the understanding of "the mental." Of course, understanding these works as relevant to a view of "the mental" requires developing some sense of what we might mean by "the mental" -- and a fundamental premise of the course is that by considering works such as these as relevant to "the philosophy of mind," we might usefully expand our understanding of what we might mean by the latter, and what it might entail. The point of the exercise, then, is not only to shed new light on works familiarly regarded by students of religion as informing the study of religion (i.e., by appreciating the extent to which such works turn out to have significant implications for an understanding of mind) -- it is also to render more complex our understanding of what we are talking about when we talk about "mind." Those who are feeling intellectually ambitious might more boldly suppose that such a reciprocally illuminating engagement can help resolve tensions on either side of the comparison -- that, e.g., this approach might give us the tools to overcome dichotomies such as that between "belief" and any of the things it has recently been fashionable to regard as opposed thereto (action, embodiment, etc.).
Required readings:
The following titles are available at the Seminary Coop Bookstore, and on reserve at Regenstein Library:
Pascal Boyer, Religion Explained
Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
Terry Godlove, Religion, Interpretation, and Diversity of Belief
Claude Levi-Strauss, The Savage Mind
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures
Talal Asad, Genealogies of Religion
Michel Foucault, Technologies of the Self
Vincent Descombes, The Mind's Provisions
Wilfrid Sellars, Empiricism & the Philosophy of Mind
Some additional short readings are available for download from electronic reserve.
Course requirements:
In addition to exemplifying regular attendance and spirited participation in discussion, students will be required to submit a paper of moderate length (15-25 pages) at the end of the term. Papers will be due on March 17, and will not be accepted late without prior arrangement.
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Schedule of Class Topics, Readings
WEEK 1 (Friday, January 6):
Introduction. (Suggested follow-up reading: Denise Riley, "The Inner Voice," from the June 2005 issue of Harper's.)
WEEK 2 (Friday, January 13):
Tue., 9/3: Cognitive-scientific approaches to the study of religion: The case of a theoretical approach to religion that is avowedly based on contemporary "philosophy of mind." Reading: Pascal Boyer, Religion Explained (paying particular attention to Chapters 2, 3, and 9). Additional short readings (recommended): Daniel Dennett, "The Evolution of Religious Memes"; D. C. Stove, "The Oracles and Their Cessation" (inspired by Julian Jaynes's The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind).
WEEK 3: (Friday, January 20):
Durkheim: "Social facts" and the ontology of mind. Reading: Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.
WEEK 4: (Friday, January 27):
One way to situate Durkheim philosophically: "On the very idea of a conceptual scheme." Reading: Terry Godlove, Religion, Interpretation, and Diversity of Belief; Donald Davidson, "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme."
WEEK 5: (Friday, February 3):
Religion as "a direct expression of the structure of the mind (and behind the mind, probably of the brain)": Levi-Strauss's structuralism. Reading: Claude Levi-Strauss, The Savage Mind. (Recommended reading: Clifford Geertz, "The Cerebral Savage: On the Work of Claude Levi-Strauss," in Geertz's Interpretation of Cultures, pp.345-359.)
WEEK 6 (Friday, February 10):
"Religion as a cultural system," and the impact of the concept of culture on the concept of mind. Reading: Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, pp.3-125.
WEEK 7 (Friday, February 17):
"From reading symbols to analyzing practices": On mind as embodied. Reading: Talal Asad, Genealogies of Religion.
WEEK 8: (Friday, February 24):
More on the embodiment of reason. Reading: [Michel Foucault,] Technologies of the Self.
WEEK 9: (Friday, March 3):
The answer key for this course: The Hegelian category of "objective mind." Reading: Vincent Descombes, The Mind's Provisions.
WEEK 10: (Friday, March 10):
On what the "philosophy of mind," properly speaking, might look like in light of the foregoing: "Moving analytic philosophy from its humean phase to a kantian one." Reading: Wilfrid Sellars, Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind; Donald Lopez, "Belief" (from Mark Taylor, ed., Critical Terms for Religious Studies).
Final papers due by March 17!