[SydPhil] Steve Clarke ACU PHILOSOPHY SEMINAR

[Stephen Matthews]

Steve Clarke, CSU Philosophy, CAPPE.

Title: Straight outta Durkheim: Haidt on Religious Belonging and Religious Belief
Abstract:

Where: ACU North Sydney campus, 8-20 Napier Street, Tenison Woods House Level 16.
When: 2.30pm-4pm, Friday October 2

The talk will be videoconferenced to:

Melbourne, St Patrick's Lv 7 (ROOM 703),  250 Victoria Parade, East Melbourne

Brisbane, McAuley AC.22

Strathfield, MSM VC Room (E2.45 Room)

Canberra, Signadou 110  Ballarat Aquinas 503.

Abstract:
In The Righteous Mind, Jon Haidt (2012) takes aim at 'new atheist' characterisations of religious psychology, which emphasise the importance of religious belief to religious psychology. He contrasts these with a 'Durkheimian' alternative that he favours, which stresses that religion has a function - the function of binding communities together- and which accords participation in communal activities, rather than religious belief,  the key role in strengthening communal bonds. I examine Durkheim's (1912) The Elementary Forms of Religious Life and argue that Durkheim had a more nuanced account of the interplay between religious belief, religious communal activity, and the strengthening of communal bonds, than Haidt recognizes. I argue that it is more convincing than Haidt's new Durkheimian alternative. I also consider the ability of the new atheist, new Durkheimian and original Durkheimian accounts of religious psychology to explain recent patterns of secularization. I argue that the original Durkheimian account is much better able to explain these patterns than either of its two more contemporary rivals.


Enquiries: stephen.matthews at acu.edu.au
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.sydney.edu.au/pipermail/sydphil/attachments/20150928/8686d3ff/attachment-0002.html>