CFP: Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture: Volume 7: no. 3/2023 - Science and Religion

Submission deadline: July 31, 2023

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Science and religion are complex cultural phenomena, which bear on our understanding of the world, life, consciousness, agency, morality, as well as all other fundamental issues human beings puzzle over. There exists a longstanding question about whether science and religion, and the responses they offer to these issues, are complementary or in conflict.

The conflict narrative, championed for example by the New Atheists, emphasizes discrepancies between scientific and religious explanations and typically advances methodological, ethical, and ontological naturalism as providing us with the only adequate means of addressing the big questions humanity faces. The complementarity narrative, without denying the advances of the natural sciences, tends to take the view that it is possible to retain elements of a religious worldview alongside the discoveries of natural science.

A traditional focus in the European context has been on the viability of certain ethical ideas whose original justification was arguably based in Christianity, such as human dignity, moral equality, and the centrality of humility, compassion and sacrifice. Another focus has been on whether putatively Christian conceptions of love as ideally unconditional and selfless are justifiable within a non-religious framework. A third focus has been on whether art has a role to play as a substitute or successor to religion, either through imparting some special form of knowledge, or as a means of inculcating moral and cultural values more generally.

By contrast the Anglo-American tradition has tended to consider the metaphysical implications of naturalism for the religious world view. Some of the important questions addressed in this strand of the debate include whether the universe is causally closed, and if so whether this is compatible with the existence of supernatural phenomena such as immaterial souls or divine intervention.

One of the striking features of this debate is that it divides thinkers in unexpected and unfamiliar ways. Some religious thinkers argued that valuable aspects of religious life are inseparable from belief, and have thus been led to conclude that belief remains indispensable.  Others have held that religion can bequeath precious ideals and practices to secular culture.  Non-religious thinkers may think that the persistence of religiously influenced ways of life in the absence of belief is invidious, or that this would be desirable but is impossible to maintain, or that it is both possible, and an important objective. These distinctions disrupt standard categorisations of thinkers into pro- and anti-religion camps.

Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture invites contributions which engage with these and connected themes including challenges to methodological, ethical, and ontological naturalism; possible advantages of supernaturalist and non-supernaturalist positions in these areas; the epistemological value of religious belief; the sources of morality; the metaphysics of the self; the possibility of empirical/scientific theology; and the possibility of a purely scientific/naturalistic culture.

Contributions can be submitted by July 31st, 2023 to: [email protected]

They have to be previously unpublished and they cannot be under consideration for publication elsewhere. They should be prepared for a double-blind review process. Please, make sure that your paper complies with our submission standards which are posted here: http://eidos.uw.edu.pl/submissions/

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