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The Sacred, Science & the Mind | Thomas Lawson

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In this episode of The Knowledge Hub South Africa, host Professor Ignatius Gous speaks with Professor Thomas Lawson, Professor Emeritus at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and the founding figure of the cognitive science of religion. Lawson completed his PhD in philosophy of religion at the University of Chicago in 1963, following graduate study across theology, philosophy, history of religions, and religion and personality. He spent the bulk of his career at Western Michigan University, with visiting appointments at Queen’s University Belfast and Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He co-authored the foundational 1990 text Rethinking Religion: Connecting Cognition and Culture with Robert N. McCauley, followed by Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms in 2002. His 2023 book Imagining the Cognitive Science of Religion charts the field’s future directions. His work drew together cognitive psychology, linguistics, evolutionary biology, and the philosophy of religion into a genuinely new scientific discipline.
Chapters
  • 00:00 Meet Prof Thomas Lawson
  • 01:42 Growing Up in South Africa
  • 04:22 From Kimberley to America
  • 17:03 Chicago & Philosophy of Religion
  • 22:58 Cognitive Science: The First Steps
  • 28:24 Rethinking Religion: The Framework
  • 44:37 Evolution, Experiment & Justin Barrett
  • 54:00 Frontiers & Advice for Young Scholars
19 Apr English South Africa Education · Business

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