Course: Cognitive Study of Religions

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Course title Cognitive Study of Religions
Course code KSA/KOR
Organizational form of instruction Seminar
Level of course Bachelor
Year of study not specified
Semester Winter and summer
Number of ECTS credits 4
Language of instruction Czech
Status of course unspecified
Form of instruction Face-to-face
Work placements This is not an internship
Recommended optional programme components None
Lecturer(s)
  • Kotherová Silvie, Mgr. Ph.D.
Course content
- Basic theses of the cognitive approach to religion. - A brief history of Cognitive Science of Religion. - Cognitive and evolutionary ritual theory. - Religious ideas and their transmission, MCI concepts. - Contemporary evolutionary approaches to the study of religion. - Theory of embodied and extended cognition. - Methods used in experimental research of religion - Research protocol - Religious behavior and prosociality. - Religious Disbelief and Religion as Morality (Will M. Gervais and Ara Norenzayan) - Seminar: Experimental Exercises I. - Seminar: Experimental exercise II. - Final Summary - Explaining of replication errors

Learning activities and teaching methods
unspecified
Learning outcomes
The course will introduce the current interdisciplinary approach to the study of religion, called the cognitive science of religion. The course introduces to the platform of experimental research (including its pros and cons), which is an essential research tool for the CSR. Students will also learn about differences of field and laboratory experiments, and they will become familiar with the researches related to religiously motivated thinking and behavior, based on the importance of interconnection of humanities and natural sciences (such as psychology, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, evolutionary biology, neuroscience and informatics in religion research).

Prerequisites
unspecified

Assessment methods and criteria
unspecified
- Replication of the experiment - research protocol with students twist - Replication of the experiment - exercise - Oral exam
Recommended literature
  • Boyer, P. (2001). Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought.. Basic Books, New York.
  • Geertz, A. W. (2004). Cognitive Approaches to the Study of Religion.? In: New Approaches to the Study of Religion II. de Gruyter, Berlin, 347?399.
  • Chalupa, A. (ed.). (2014). Pantheon (monotematické číslo časopisu). č. 9/1.
  • Kotherová, S. (2015). Problematika experimentálního výzkumu buddhistických meditací. in Sociální studia. Masarykova univerzita, roč. 12, č. 4, s. 73-93.
  • Schjoedt, U. (2009). The Religious Brain: A General Introduction to the Experimental Neuroscience of Religion. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 21, s. 310-339.
  • Sorensen, J. (2005). Religion in Mind: Review Article of the Cognitive Science of Religion. Numen 52/4: 465?494.
  • Xygalatas, D., Kotherová, S., Maňo, P., Kundt, R., Cigán, J., Kundtová Klocová, E., Lang, M. (2017). Big Gods in small places : the Random Allocation Game in Mauritius. in Religion, Brain & Behavior.. Routledge, s. 1-19.


Study plans that include the course
Faculty Study plan (Version) Category of Branch/Specialization Recommended year of study Recommended semester