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Believing and Acting: The Pragmatic Turn in Comparative Religion and Ethics
Contributor(s): Davis, G. Scott (Author)

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 ISBN: 0199583900     ISBN-13: 9780199583904
Publisher: OUP Oxford
OUR PRICE: $66.50  

Binding Type: Hardcover
Published: April 2012
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Ethics
- Religion | Philosophy
Dewey: 200
LCCN: 2011942642
Physical Information: 0.4" H x 5.7" W x 8.5" L (0.90 lbs) 272 pages
Features: Bibliography, Index
Review Citations: Choice 03/01/2013
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
How should religion and ethics be studied if we want to understand what people believe and why they act the way they do? In the 1980s and '90s postmodernist worries about led to debates that turned on power, truth, and relativism. Since the turn of the century scholars impressed by
'cognitive science' have introduced concepts drawn from evolutionary biology, neurosciences, and linguistics in the attempt to provide 'naturalist' accounts of religion. Deploying concepts and arguments that have their roots in the pragmatism of C. S. Peirce, Believing and Acting argues that both
approaches are misguided and largely unhelpful in answering the questions that matter: What did those people believe then? How does it relate to what these people want to do now? What is our evidence for our interpretations? Pragmatic inquiry into these questions recommends an approach that
questions grand theories, advocates a critical pluralism about religion and ethics that defies disciplinary boundaries in the pursuit of the truth. Rationality, on a pragmatic approach, is about solving particular problems in medias res, thus there is no hard and fast line to be drawn between
inquiry and advocacy; both are essential to negotiating day to day life. The upshot is an approach to religion and ethics in which inquiry looks much like the art history of Michael Baxandall and advocacy like the art criticism of Arthur Danto.
 
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