Doxological extended cognition

Zygon Volume 42, Issue 3, September 2007, Pages 749-766

ISSN: 05912385 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2007.00863.x Document Type: Article Source Type: Journal

View references (20)

View at publisher||||

Doxological extended cognition

Holland, G.A.^{a b}

^a University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia
^b 1021 Dooralong Rd,, Dooralong, NSW 2259, Australia

Abstract

Many Christian theologians have proposed a universal knowledge of God implanted in all humans. Thomas Aquinas famously stated that all humans have some knowledge of God, confused though it may be. John Calvin developed this proposition in much more detail and concluded that there is a cognitive faculty in humans, the sensus divinitatis, committed to giving the cognizer knowledge of God. Independent of such theological concerns, a current movement in cognitive science proposes a radical change to the traditional boundaries drawn around the human mind. Proponents of mental extension, such as Andy Clark, argue that the mind extends well beyond the body and should be approached in a much broader conceptual analysis. This essay arises from the conviction that the Extended Mind (EM) framework offers new insights into developing a cognitive understanding of the sensus divinitatis. Drawing in equal parts on current arguments for mental extension and the sensus divinitatis, the essay establishes the compatibility between the two arguments and indicates how an integration of the two can yield significant benefits for both mental extension and the sensus divinitatis: the basing of the sensus divinitatis in a specific cognitive theory that offers explanations of its functions, and the introduction of theism to the EM argument as a potentially useful component in a collaborative cognitive science effort. © 2007 by the Joint Publication Board of Zygon.

Language of original document

English

Author keywords

Alvin Plantinga; Andy Clark; Cognitive science; Complimentary external cognition; Extended Mind; Functional analogy; God; Interdisciplinarity; John Calvin; Philosophic theology; Sensus divinitatis; Theology; Thomas Aquinas

References (20) View in table layout

		Export Print E-mail Create bibliography
		Select: Page
1		Aquinas, T. (1273) Summa Theologiae. Cited 307 times. 1975. Notre Dame, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Dame Press
2		Brown, C. (1990) Christianity and Western Thought. Cited 2 times. Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity
3		Calvin, J. (1536) Institutes of the Christian Religion. Cited 182 times. Trans. Ford Lewis Battles. Ed. John McNeill Philadelphia: Westminster
4		Calvin, J. (1536) Institutes of the Christian Religion. Cited 182 times. Trans. Henry Beveridge. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans
5		Calvin, J. (1539) Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans. Cited 2 times. Ed. John Owen Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker
6		Clark, A. (1997) Being There. Cited 144 times. Cambridge: MIT Press
7		Clark, A. (2001) Mindware. Cited 31 times. New York: Oxford Univ. Press
8		Clark, A. Reasons, robots and the extended mind (2001) Mind and Language, 16 (2), pp. 121-145. Cited 43 times. View at publisher
9		Clark, A., Chalmers, D. The extended mind (1998) Analysis, 58 (1), pp. 7-19. Cited 336 times.
10		Clark, A., Thornton, C. Trading spaces: Computation, representation, and the limits of uninformed learning (1997) Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 20 (1), pp. 57-66. Cited 59 times. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X97000022 View at publisher
11		Dehaene, S., Spelke, E., Pinel, P., Stanescu, R., Tsivkin, S. Sources of mathematical thinking: Behavioral and brain-imaging evidence (1999) Science, 284 (5416), pp. 970-974. Cited 538 times. doi: 10.1126/science.284.5416.970 View at publisher
12		Dennett, D. (1996) Kinds of Minds. Cited 130 times. New York: Basic Books
13		Duce, P. (1998) Reading the Mind of God. Cited 2 times. Leicester: Apollos
14		Hutchins, E. (1995) Cognition in the Wild. Cited 1955 times. Cambridge: MIT Press
15		LeBlanc, J. (2000) Aquinas and Plantinga http://www.stfx.ca/people/wsweet/Plantinga-LeBlanc.htm
16		Lepore, E., Pylyshyn, Z. (1999) What Is Cognitive Science. Cited 7 times. Oxford: Blackwell
17		Plantinga, A. (1993) Warrant: The Current Debate. Cited 154 times. New York: Oxford Univ. Press
18		Plantinga, A. (1993) Warrant and Proper Function. Cited 222 times. New York: Oxford Univ. Press
19		Plantinga, A. (2000) Warranted Christian Belief. Cited 121 times. New York: Oxford Univ. Press
20		Watts, F. (2002) Theology and Psychology. Cited 13 times. Hampshire, England: Ashgate