Abstract
The religious phenomenon is a complex one in many respects. In recent years an increasing number of theories on the origin and evolution of religion have been put forward. Each one of these theories rests on a Darwinian framework but there is a lot of disagreement about which bits of the framework account best for the evolution of religion. Is religion primarily a by-product of some adaptation? Is it itself an adaptation, and if it is, does it beneficiate individuals or groups? In this chapter, I review a number of theories that link religion to cooperation and show that these theories, contrary to what is often suggested in the literature, are not mutually exclusive. As I present each theory, I delineate an integrative framework that allows distinguishing the explanandum of each theory. Once this is done, it becomes clear that some theories provide good explanations for the origin of religion but not so good explanations for its maintenance and vice versa. Similarly some explanations are good explanations for the evolution of religious individual level traits but not so good explanations for traits hard to define at the individual level. I suggest that to fully understand the religious phenomenon, integrating in a systematic way the different theories and the data is a more successful approach.
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Handbook of evolutionary thinking in the sciences |
| Editors | Thomas Heams, Philippe Huneman, Guillaume Lecointre, Marc Silberstein |
| Place of Publication | Dordrecht, Netherlands |
| Publisher | Springer, Springer Nature |
| Pages | 761-780 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9789401790147 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9789401790130 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2015 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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Origins and evolution of religion from a Darwinian point of view : synthesis of different theories. / Bourrat, Pierrick.
Handbook of evolutionary thinking in the sciences. ed. / Thomas Heams; Philippe Huneman; Guillaume Lecointre; Marc Silberstein. Dordrecht, Netherlands : Springer, Springer Nature, 2015. p. 761-780.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › Research › peer-review
TY - CHAP
T1 - Origins and evolution of religion from a Darwinian point of view
T2 - synthesis of different theories
AU - Bourrat, Pierrick
PY - 2015/1/1
Y1 - 2015/1/1
N2 - The religious phenomenon is a complex one in many respects. In recent years an increasing number of theories on the origin and evolution of religion have been put forward. Each one of these theories rests on a Darwinian framework but there is a lot of disagreement about which bits of the framework account best for the evolution of religion. Is religion primarily a by-product of some adaptation? Is it itself an adaptation, and if it is, does it beneficiate individuals or groups? In this chapter, I review a number of theories that link religion to cooperation and show that these theories, contrary to what is often suggested in the literature, are not mutually exclusive. As I present each theory, I delineate an integrative framework that allows distinguishing the explanandum of each theory. Once this is done, it becomes clear that some theories provide good explanations for the origin of religion but not so good explanations for its maintenance and vice versa. Similarly some explanations are good explanations for the evolution of religious individual level traits but not so good explanations for traits hard to define at the individual level. I suggest that to fully understand the religious phenomenon, integrating in a systematic way the different theories and the data is a more successful approach.
AB - The religious phenomenon is a complex one in many respects. In recent years an increasing number of theories on the origin and evolution of religion have been put forward. Each one of these theories rests on a Darwinian framework but there is a lot of disagreement about which bits of the framework account best for the evolution of religion. Is religion primarily a by-product of some adaptation? Is it itself an adaptation, and if it is, does it beneficiate individuals or groups? In this chapter, I review a number of theories that link religion to cooperation and show that these theories, contrary to what is often suggested in the literature, are not mutually exclusive. As I present each theory, I delineate an integrative framework that allows distinguishing the explanandum of each theory. Once this is done, it becomes clear that some theories provide good explanations for the origin of religion but not so good explanations for its maintenance and vice versa. Similarly some explanations are good explanations for the evolution of religious individual level traits but not so good explanations for traits hard to define at the individual level. I suggest that to fully understand the religious phenomenon, integrating in a systematic way the different theories and the data is a more successful approach.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84943329852&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-94-017-9014-7_36
DO - 10.1007/978-94-017-9014-7_36
M3 - Chapter
SN - 9789401790130
SP - 761
EP - 780
BT - Handbook of evolutionary thinking in the sciences
A2 - Heams, Thomas
A2 - Huneman, Philippe
A2 - Lecointre, Guillaume
A2 - Silberstein, Marc
PB - Springer, Springer Nature
CY - Dordrecht, Netherlands
ER -