Deeply religious nonbelief: countering the affective case against naturalism with embodied cognition

Thesis

The Affective Case against Naturalism (ACAN) claims that naturalism cannot be emotionally satisfying. I argue that Religious Naturalism (RN) is concerned with developing meaningful myths founded on mainstream science; that my concept of affective embodied cognition (AEC) has an enabling role in that process; and that in doing so AEC overturns the ACAN.

The ACAN has deep roots but emerges starkly in critiques of the ‘disenchantment’ of modernism. It is challenged explicitly by RN, which owes debts to William James, John Dewey and George Santayana. I define AEC as a combination of ‘4EA’ cognition, embodied metaphor and embodied simulation, and build a model for analysing the affective processes engaged when consuming texts.

I show that AEC can counter the purportedly alienating character of scientific explanation by analysing the work of David Abram, and evaluate affective engagement with nonhuman entities. Abram exemplifies naturalist imaginaries that elevate the material, participating with the unseen and indeed unsensed. I then demonstrate how toggling between two distinct forms of attention dissected by Iain McGilchrist reveals how wonder and explanation can co-exist.

I concur with Mary Midgley and Lisa Sideris that scientific theories do not disclose specific human purposes, but show that once a purpose is chosen, AEC offers opportunities to align readers behind it. I also demonstrate that while some RN narratives are anthropocentric, alternative narrative plots with various affective topographies are available.

I review naturalist strategies to ease death anxiety, suggesting that the relation between direct perception and embodied simulation involves isomorphic material configurations. These entail imperfect reconstructions of those absent and their experiences. Finally, I propose that the origin and identity of all life on Earth in a supernova can be blended with the affectivity of the stellar, such that stars can serve as a focaliser upon which numerous naturalist ideas can hang.

Authors: Pritchard, MC

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-kzz5n4oq5
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: embodied metaphor; affect; naturalism; narratology; religious naturalism; emotion; wonder; embodied cognition; imagination; embodied simulation
• Subjects: Affect (Psychology)--Religious aspects; Emotions and cognition; Naturalism--Religious aspects; Affect (Psychology) in literature; Affective neuroscience; Affect (Psychology); Embodied Cognition; Emotions in literature; Schemas (Psychology); Emotions (Philosophy)