Overview Given the theme of this year’s conference “Transdisciplinarity and the Unity of Knowledge” I originally intended to simply contribute with this paper the definition of transdisciplinarity, and provide a comprehensive overview of the field of transdisciplinary projects, organizations and media. The sobering result of my initial investigations was that 1) there is no such…
Among the vast number of psychological functions of religion, is it possible to delineate one or two that can claim to: a) apply universally in all the varied contexts in which religion is expressed; and b) give a specific psychological explanation of the function of religion, as compared with other needs and psychological functions? Our…
Introduction The primary assumption of this study is that there exists a uniquely human selfhood. Consequently, the subsequent assumption, that there are structural and phenomenological similarities in the selves of all persons, necessarily follows. A model of the self which is able to explain a number of different experiences of selfhood will be the one…
The Science and Religion Dialogue as Natural Philosophy My topic today is “natural philosophy” and the various meanings associated with that term. Many will recognize the term natural philosophy from the history of science, for it is the name of the activity that the luminaries of the Scientific Revolution understood themselves to be undertaking. For…
Models of the methodological relation of science and religion Today the science-religion dialogue is getting more and more important in academic discussion. Methodologically, there seem to be three possibilities how the relationship between science and religion can be sketched: a) Science and religion can directly interact with each other. Both domains share basic presuppositions and…
We are going to consider science perceived as a source of information on the object
I. IntroductionThe concepts of reductionism, naturalism, and nominalism in their radical form lie at the base of most anti-religious scientific writing, lurking there at such a deep level that even the author in many cases is unaware of the metaphysics they represent. Reductionism, in its most radical form, is the theory (or belief) that all…
1.- Introduction There are solid evidences of the way the Universe evolved from the initial Big Bang to human beings ruled by different physical laws and by natural selection of random mutations. Atheists are convinced that natural laws and chance are enough to explain our existence. On the contrary, believers are convinced that the Universe…
Why one should NOT deal with such a construction plan of the universe Whoever wants to understand the function of something that exists would like to emulate it for a practical validation test, for one’s own use or for further development. Such motivations seem completely utopian for a reproduction of the universe. Nevertheless, people thought…
The concept of wisdom is increasingly being examined as a psychological construct (Sternberg, 1990; Sternber & 2005; Baltes & Staudinger, 2000); the discussion, while primarily informed by Western and intellectual perspectives of what is meant by this term, acknowledges certain core elements, primarily the ability to fruitfully engage conflicting knowledge or aspects of a situation…