Indrek Peedu „Positioning the scholar: issues of epistemology and methodology in the evolutionary study of religion"

Supervisor:
Dr Roland Karo, University of Tartu

 

Oponent:
Professor Volkhard Krech, University of Bochumi

 

This doctoral thesis deals with the issue of positioning the scholar in the context of the study of religion. This is a complex matter, where methodological and epistemological issues intertwine. In short, this is an issue of deciding who the scholar of religion is or can be in relation to his or her ‘object of research’. To what extent can a scholar of religion remain a neutral, scientific observer or to what extent is he or she an inevitable part of the cultural and religious context of the field of research itself as well? These issues will be dealt with primarily within the context of the cognitive and evolutionary sciences of religion. In these fields of research, the idea of methodological naturalism has become very influential over the past few decades and many have argued that this is the best position for evolutionary study of religion as well as for the study of religion in general. In my thesis I show why justifications of methodological naturalism are not as strong as its advocates have argued and how the theory of evolutionary does not inevitably require one to position oneself naturalistically. Furthermore, the second part of the thesis exemplifies how it is possible to develop a position, which is the exact opposite of methodological naturalism in epistemological matters concerning the supernatural, but at the same time it is also just as consistent with the main premises of evolutionary theory as methodological naturalism. In the last part of the thesis I am placing methodological naturalism into a larger comparative framework, to highlight its strengths and weaknesses in comparison to such potential alternatives as methodological agnosticism, neutrality and the dialogical position.