The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior
Editors: Voland, Eckart, Schiefenhövel, Wulf (Eds.)
Free Preview- Presents new scientific evidence for controversial hypotheses about religiosity
- Combines modern psychology and psychiatry with evolutionary biology, archeology, and anthropology to explain religious phenomena
- Survival value of religious behavior is analyzed
- Questions whether similar mental states underlie spirituality, mysticism and delusions
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- About this book
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In a Darwinian world, religious behavior - just like other behaviors - is likely to have undergone a process of natural selection in which it was rewarded in the evolutionary currency of reproductive success. This book aims to provide a better understanding of the social scenarios in which selection pressure led to religious practices becoming an evolved human trait, i.e. an adaptive answer to the conditions of living and surviving that prevailed among our prehistoric ancestors. This aim is pursued by a team of expert authors from a range of disciplines. Their contributions examine the relevant physiological, emotional, cognitive and social processes. The resulting understanding of the functional interplay of these processes gives valuable insights into the biological roots and benefits of religion.
- About the authors
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Wulf Schiefenhövel is professor for medical psychology and ethnomedicine at the University of Munich and head of the human ethology group at the Max-Planck-Institute in Andechs, Germany. His main research interests are human ethology and evolutionary medicine, within which he focuses on sexuality and reproduction, human birth behavior, early infancy, language and cognitive concepts as well as the genetic and oral history of Melanesian populations
Eckart Voland is professor for philosophy of life sciences at the University of Giessen, Germany. His main research interests are human sociobiology and behavioral ecology. In particular he is interested in the biological evolution of social and reproductive strategies in humans. Moreover, in pursuing the project of naturalizing the human mind and its achievements, he works on the philosophical implications of evolutionary anthropology as reflected in evolutionary ethics and aesthetics.
- Table of contents (19 chapters)
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Introduction
Pages 1-7
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Evaluating the Evolutionary Status of Religiosity and Religiousness
Pages 9-24
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Gods, Gains, and Genes
Pages 25-49
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How Some Major Components of Religion Could Have Evolved by Natural Selection?
Pages 51-66
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The Correlated History of Social Organization, Morality , and Religion
Pages 67-88
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Table of contents (19 chapters)
- Download Preface 1 PDF (43 KB)
- Download Sample pages 1 PDF (146.2 KB)
- Download Table of contents PDF (43.6 KB)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior
- Editors
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- Eckart Voland
- Wulf Schiefenhövel
- Series Title
- The Frontiers Collection
- Copyright
- 2009
- Publisher
- Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
- Copyright Holder
- Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-642-00128-4
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-642-00128-4
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-642-00127-7
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-3-642-26016-2
- Series ISSN
- 1612-3018
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- X, 305
- Topics
