The Cognitive Underpinnings of Anthropomorphism

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Publisher : Frontiers Media SA
ISBN 13 : 2889630382
Total Pages : 132 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (896 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cognitive Underpinnings of Anthropomorphism by : Gabriella Airenti

Download or read book The Cognitive Underpinnings of Anthropomorphism written by Gabriella Airenti and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2019-10-04 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The attribution of human traits to non-humans - animals, artifacts or even natural events - is an attitude, deeply grounded in human mind. It is frequent to see children addressing dolls and figures as if they were alive. Adults often attribute mental states and emotions to animals. In everyday life humans speak of events such as fires as if they possessed some form of intentionality, a behavior sometimes shared also by scientists. Furthermore, a systematized form of anthropomorphism underlies most religions. The pervasiveness of this phenomenon makes it a particularly interesting object of psychological enquiry. Psychologists have set out to understand which aspects of human mind are involved in this behavior, its motivations and the circumstances favoring its enactment. Moreover, there is an ongoing debate among scientists about the merits or harm of anthropomorphism in the scientific study of animal behavior and in scientific discourse. Despite the interest and the specificity of the topic most of the relevant studies are scattered across disciplines and have not built a systematic research framework. This observation has motivated the collection of articles presented here, under the unifying perspective of the cognitive underpinnings of anthropomorphism. Within this general umbrella, the authors included in this e-book have explored the issues mentioned above from different points of view. From their work it emerges that far from being the result of naive beliefs, the exercise of anthropomorphism involves a multiplicity of mental abilities including perception and imagination. They also show that the context and the interactive situation are crucial to understanding this phenomenon. Some authors analyze the relationship between anthropomorphization and theory of mind abilities both in typical and atypical populations. Finally, others contributions have identified possible benefits deriving from the natural attitude to anthropomorphize, as a design philosophy for robots and artifacts in general, or as a useful heuristic in the scientific study of animal behavior.

The Cambridge Handbook of Animal Cognition

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110856125X
Total Pages : 1032 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (85 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cambridge Handbook of Animal Cognition by : Allison B. Kaufman

Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Animal Cognition written by Allison B. Kaufman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-22 with total page 1032 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook lays out the science behind how animals think, remember, create, calculate, and remember. It provides concise overviews on major areas of study such as animal communication and language, memory and recall, social cognition, social learning and teaching, numerical and quantitative abilities, as well as innovation and problem solving. The chapters also explore more nuanced topics in greater detail, showing how the research was conducted and how it can be used for further study. The authors range from academics working in renowned university departments to those from research institutions and practitioners in zoos. The volume encompasses a wide variety of species, ensuring the breadth of the field is explored.

Faces in the Clouds

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195356802
Total Pages : 335 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

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Book Synopsis Faces in the Clouds by : Stewart Elliott Guthrie

Download or read book Faces in the Clouds written by Stewart Elliott Guthrie and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1995-04-06 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion is universal human culture. No phenomenon is more widely shared or more intensely studied, yet there is no agreement on what religion is. Now, in Faces in the Clouds, anthropologist Stewart Guthrie provides a provocative definition of religion in a bold and persuasive new theory. Guthrie says religion can best be understood as systematic anthropomorphism--that is, the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman things and events. Many writers see anthropomorphism as common or even universal in religion, but few think it is central. To Guthrie, however, it is fundamental. Religion, he writes, consists of seeing the world as humanlike. As Guthrie shows, people find a wide range of humanlike beings plausible: Gods, spirits, abominable snowmen, HAL the computer, Chiquita Banana. We find messages in random events such as earthquakes, weather, and traffic accidents. We say a fire "rages," a storm "wreaks vengeance," and waters "lie still." Guthrie says that our tendency to find human characteristics in the nonhuman world stems from a deep-seated perceptual strategy: in the face of pervasive (if mostly unconscious) uncertainty about what we see, we bet on the most meaningful interpretation we can. If we are in the woods and see a dark shape that might be a bear or a boulder, for example, it is good policy to think it is a bear. If we are mistaken, we lose little, and if we are right, we gain much. So, Guthrie writes, in scanning the world we always look for what most concerns us--livings things, and especially, human ones. Even animals watch for human attributes, as when birds avoid scarecrows. In short, we all follow the principle--better safe than sorry. Marshalling a wealth of evidence from anthropology, cognitive science, philosophy, theology, advertising, literature, art, and animal behavior, Guthrie offers a fascinating array of examples to show how this perceptual strategy pervades secular life and how it characterizes religious experience. Challenging the very foundations of religion, Faces in the Clouds forces us to take a new look at this fundamental element of human life.

The New Anthropomorphism

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521422673
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (226 download)

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Book Synopsis The New Anthropomorphism by : John S. Kennedy

Download or read book The New Anthropomorphism written by John S. Kennedy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1992-07-16 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this 1992 book, John Kennedy's point is that explicit anthropomorphism was well-nigh killed by fierce criticism from the radical Behaviourists, but that we have to recognize that today there is a new anthropomorphism which is much harder to avoid because it is unintended and largely unconscious. For that reason even those who if they were asked would firmly reject anthropomorphism nevertheless unwittingly slip into it from time to time. This book contains nineteen essays on behavioural concepts which have seldom been identified as anthropomorphic but in fact bear that connotation and lead to mistakes. Some of these, such as search images in birds and the learning of grammatical language by apes, have been seen through as errors after a time. A greater number, such as efference copy, goal-directedness, cognition and suffering in animals, are still current though not yet regarded as erroneous. The final chapter outlines things we can do to minimise the damage it does to the causal analysis of animal behaviour.

Consciousness and Cognition

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Publisher : Elsevier
ISBN 13 : 0080471196
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Consciousness and Cognition by : Henri Cohen

Download or read book Consciousness and Cognition written by Henri Cohen and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2011-10-10 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What were the circumstances that led to the development of our cognitive abilities from a primitive hominid to an essentially modern human? The answer to this question is of profound importance to understanding our present nature. Since the steep path of our cognitive development is the attribute that most distinguishes humans from other mammals, this is also a quest to determine human origins. This collection of outstanding scientific problems and the revelation of the many ways they can be addressed indicates the scope of the field to be explored and reveals some avenues along which research is advancing. Distinguished scientists and researchers who have advanced the discussion of the mind and brain contribute state-of-the-art presentations of their field of expertise. Chapters offer speculative and provocative views on topics such as body, culture, evolution, feelings, genetics, history, humor, knowledge, language, machines, neuroanatomy, pathology, and perception. This book will appeal to researchers and students in cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology, cognitive science, and philosophy. Includes a contribution by Noam Chomsky, one of the most cited authors of our time

Humanness and Dehumanization

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Publisher : Psychology Press
ISBN 13 : 1136275096
Total Pages : 428 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (362 download)

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Book Synopsis Humanness and Dehumanization by : Paul G. Bain

Download or read book Humanness and Dehumanization written by Paul G. Bain and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2013-10-30 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be human? Why do people dehumanize others (and sometimes themselves)? These questions have only recently begun to be investigated in earnest within psychology. This volume presents the latest thinking about these and related questions from research leaders in the field of humanness and dehumanization in social psychology and related disciplines. Contributions provide new insights into the history of dehumanization, its different types, and new theories are proposed for when and why dehumanization occurs. While people’s views about what humanness is, and who has it, have long been known as important in understanding ethnic conflict, contributors demonstrate its relevance in other domains, including medical practice, policing, gender relations, and our relationship with the natural environment. Cultural differences and similarities in beliefs about humanness are explored, along with strategies to overcome dehumanization. In highlighting emerging ideas and theoretical perspectives, describing current theoretical issues and controversies and ways to resolve them, and in extending research to new areas, this volume will influence research on humanness and dehumanization for many years.

Anthropomorphism, Anecdotes, and Animals

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Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780791431252
Total Pages : 552 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (312 download)

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Book Synopsis Anthropomorphism, Anecdotes, and Animals by : Robert W. Mitchell

Download or read book Anthropomorphism, Anecdotes, and Animals written by Robert W. Mitchell and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People commonly think that animals are psychologically like themselves (anthropomorphism), and describe what animals do in narratives (anecdotes) that support these psychological interpretations. This is the first book to evaluate the significance and usefulness of the practices of anthropomorphism and anecdotalism for understanding animals. Diverse perspectives are presented in thoughtful, critical essays by historians, philosophers, anthropologists, psychologists, behaviorists, biologists, primatologists, and ethologists. The nature of anthropomorphism and anecdotal analysis is examined; social, cultural, and historical attitudes toward them are presented; and scientific attitudes are appraised. Authors provide fascinating in-depth descriptions and analyses of diverse species of animals, including octopi, great apes, monkeys, dogs, sea lions, and, of course, human beings. Concerns about, and proposals for, evaluations of a variety of psychological aspects of animals are discussed, including mental state attribution, intentionality, cognition, consciousness, self-consciousness, and language.

The AI Commander

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198892187
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis The AI Commander by : James Johnson

Download or read book The AI Commander written by James Johnson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-01-11 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the largely neglected question of how the fusion of machines into the war machine will affect the human condition of warfare. It emphasizes the "mind" and the mechanisms of thought (intelligence, consciousness, emotion, memory, experience, etc.) to consider the effects of AI and autonomy on the human condition of war.

Minds Make Societies

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300235178
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Minds Make Societies by : Pascal Boyer

Download or read book Minds Make Societies written by Pascal Boyer and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A scientist integrates evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and more to explore the development and workings of human societies. “There is no good reason why human societies should not be described and explained with the same precision and success as the rest of nature.” Thus argues evolutionary psychologist Pascal Boyer in this uniquely innovative book. Integrating recent insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and other fields, Boyer offers precise models of why humans engage in social behaviors such as forming families, tribes, and nations, or creating gender roles. In fascinating, thought-provoking passages, he explores questions such as: Why is there conflict between groups? Why do people believe low-value information such as rumors? Why are there religions? What is social justice? What explains morality? Boyer provides a new picture of cultural transmission that draws on the pragmatics of human communication, the constructive nature of memory in human brains, and human motivation for group formation and cooperation. “Cool and captivating…It will change forever your understanding of society and culture.”—Dan Sperber, co-author of The Enigma of Reason “It is highly recommended…to researchers firmly settled within one of the many single disciplines in question. Not only will they encounter a wealth of information from the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences, but the book will also serve as an invitation to look beyond the horizons of their own fields.”—Eveline Seghers, Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture

Shared Reality

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190948078
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis Shared Reality by : E. Tory Higgins

Download or read book Shared Reality written by E. Tory Higgins and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be human? Why do we feel and behave in the ways that we do? The classic answer is that we have a special kind of intelligence. But to understand what we are as humans, we also need to know what we are like motivationally. And what is central to this story, what is special about human motivation, is that humans want to share with others their inner experiences about the world--share how they feel, what they believe, and what they want to happen in the future. They want to create a shared reality with others. People have a shared reality together when they experience having in common a feeling about something, a belief about something, or a concern about something. They feel connected to another person or group by knowing that this person or group sees the world the same way that they do--they share what is real about the world. In this work, Dr. Higgins describes how our human motivation for shared reality evolved in our species, and how it develops in our children as shared feelings, shared practices, and shared goals and roles. Shared reality is crucial to what we believe--sharing is believing. It is central to our sense of self, what we strive for and how we strive. It is basic to how we get along with others. It brings us together in fellowship and companionship, but it also tears us apart by creating in-group "bubbles" that conflict with one another. Our shared realities are the best of us, and the worst of us.

New Religious Movements and Comparative Religion

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 1009034022
Total Pages : 80 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis New Religious Movements and Comparative Religion by : Olav Hammer

Download or read book New Religious Movements and Comparative Religion written by Olav Hammer and published by . This book was released on 2024-02-28 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Element provides an introduction to a number of less frequently explored approaches based upon the comparative study of religions. New religions convey origin myths, present their particular views of history, and craft Endtime scenarios. Their members carry out a vast and diverse array of ritual activities. They produce large corpuses of written texts and designate a subset of these as a sacrosanct canon. They focus their attention on material objects that can range from sacred buildings to objects from the natural world that are treated in ritualized fashion. The reason for this fundamental similarity between older and newer religions is briefly explored in terms of the cognitive processes that underlie religious concepts and practices. A final section returns to the issue of how such shared processes take specific shapes in the context of modern, Western societies.

The 2019 Yearbook of the Digital Ethics Lab

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Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030291456
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (32 download)

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Book Synopsis The 2019 Yearbook of the Digital Ethics Lab by : Christopher Burr

Download or read book The 2019 Yearbook of the Digital Ethics Lab written by Christopher Burr and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-01-28 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume presents an overview of cutting-edge research areas within digital ethics as defined by the Digital Ethics Lab of the University of Oxford. It identifies new challenges and opportunities of influence in setting the research agenda in the field. The yearbook presents research on the following topics: conceptual metaphor theory, cybersecurity governance, cyber conflicts, anthropomorphism in AI, digital technologies for mental healthcare, data ethics in the asylum process, AI’s legitimacy and democratic deficit, digital afterlife industry, automatic prayer bots, foresight analysis and the future of AI. This volume appeals to students, researchers and professionals.

The Origins of Religion in the Paleolithic

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442242906
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origins of Religion in the Paleolithic by : Gregory J. Wightman

Download or read book The Origins of Religion in the Paleolithic written by Gregory J. Wightman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did religion emerge—and why? What are the links between behavior, environment, and religiosity? Diving millions of years into the past, to a time when human ancestors began grappling with issues of safety, worth, identity, loss, power, and meaning in complex and difficult environments, GregoryJ. Wightman explores the significance of goal-directed action and the rise of material culture for the advent of religiosity and ritual. The book opens by tackling questions of cognitive evolution and group psychology, and how these ideas can integrate with archaeological evidence such as stone tools, shell beads, and graves. In turn, it focuses on how human ancestors engaged with their environments, how those engagements became routine, and how, eventually, certain routines took on a recognizably ritualistic flavor. Wightman also critically examines the very real constraints on drawing inferences about prehistoric belief systems solely from limited material residues. Nevertheless, Wightman argues that symbolic objects are not merely illustrative of religion, but also constitutive of it; in the continual dance between brain and behavior, between internal and external environments, lie the seeds of ritual and religion. Weaving together insights from archaeology; anthropology; cognitive and cultural neuroscience; history and philosophy of religions; and evolutionary, social, and developmental psychology, Wightman provides an intricate, evidence-based understanding of religion’s earliest origins.

A Natural History of Natural Theology

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262552450
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis A Natural History of Natural Theology by : Helen De Cruz

Download or read book A Natural History of Natural Theology written by Helen De Cruz and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-06-11 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the cognitive foundations of intuitions about the existence and attributes of God. Questions about the existence and attributes of God form the subject matter of natural theology, which seeks to gain knowledge of the divine by relying on reason and experience of the world. Arguments in natural theology rely largely on intuitions and inferences that seem natural to us, occurring spontaneously—at the sight of a beautiful landscape, perhaps, or in wonderment at the complexity of the cosmos—even to a nonphilosopher. In this book, Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt examine the cognitive origins of arguments in natural theology. They find that although natural theological arguments can be very sophisticated, they are rooted in everyday intuitions about purpose, causation, agency, and morality. Using evidence and theories from disciplines including the cognitive science of religion, evolutionary ethics, evolutionary aesthetics, and the cognitive science of testimony, they show that these intuitions emerge early in development and are a stable part of human cognition. De Cruz and De Smedt analyze the cognitive underpinnings of five well-known arguments for the existence of God: the argument from design, the cosmological argument, the moral argument, the argument from beauty, and the argument from miracles. Finally, they consider whether the cognitive origins of these natural theological arguments should affect their rationality.

The Cognitive Science of Religion

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350033707
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cognitive Science of Religion by : D. Jason Slone

Download or read book The Cognitive Science of Religion written by D. Jason Slone and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-01-10 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cognitive Science of Religion introduces students to key empirical studies conducted over the past 25 years in this new and rapidly expanding field. In these studies, cognitive scientists of religion have applied the theories, findings and research tools of the cognitive sciences to understanding religious thought, behaviour and social dynamics. Each chapter is written by a leading international scholar, and summarizes in non-technical language the original empirical study conducted by the scholar. No prior or statistical knowledge is presumed, and studies included range from the classic to the more recent and innovative cases. Students will learn about the theories that cognitive scientists have employed to explain recurrent features of religiosity across cultures and historical eras, how scholars have tested those theories, and what the results of those tests have revealed and suggest. Written to be accessible to undergraduates, this provides a much-needed survey of empirical studies in the cognitive science of religion.

Cognitive Ethology

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Publisher : Psychology Press
ISBN 13 : 1317785320
Total Pages : 383 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (177 download)

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Book Synopsis Cognitive Ethology by : Carolyn A. Ristau

Download or read book Cognitive Ethology written by Carolyn A. Ristau and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays was written by former students, associates, admirers, critics and friends of Donald R. Griffin -- the creator of cognitive ethology. Stimulated by his work, this volume presents ideas and experiments in the field of cognitive ethology -- the exploration of the mental experiences of animals as they behave in their natural environment during the course of their normal lives. Cognitive Ethology discusses the possibility that animals may have abilities to experience, communicate, reason, and plan beyond those usually ascribed to them in a "black box" or "stimulus-response" interpretation of their behavior. Contributions from scientists who have been associated with or influenced by Griffin offer a lively array of views, some disparate from one another and some especially selected to present approaches contrary to his.

Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108487785
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion by : Brett E. Maiden

Download or read book Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion written by Brett E. Maiden and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-08 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent tools and findings from the cognitive sciences illuminate religious thought and behaviour in ancient Israel and the Bible. Primarily intended for scholars of the Bible and religion, it is also relevant to cognitive scientists, researchers, and graduate students interested in the intersection of cognition and culture.