Religious Studies as a Scientific Discipline: The Persistence of a Delusion
Religious Studies as a Scientific Discipline: The Persistence of a Delusion
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作为一门科学学科的宗教研究：错觉的持续存在
DOI：
10.1093/jaarel/lfs030
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发表时间：
2012
影响因子：
0.9
通讯作者：
D. Wiebe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
L. Martin;D. Wiebe
我们论文的标题很可能被认为是对弗洛伊德的《幻觉的未来》或道金斯的《上帝的妄想》的粉饰。然而，我们的论文并不关注宗教研究的理论对象；相反，它是对我们自己对我们所致力于的领域的渴望的反思。我们认为，历史记录表明，自19世纪末首次倡导这种方法以来，没有哪个本科生宗教研究系完全实施过科学的学习和研究方案--更不用说这样一个学科领域的广泛建立了。我们认为--基于科学依据--这样的研究不太可能在那个或任何其他环境中发生。因此，在我们看来，抱着这样一种发展是可能的希望，实事求是地说，就是陷入了一种虚假的、不可动摇的错觉。我们“承认”我们自己也曾被蒙骗过。
The title of our paper might well be taken as a gloss on that of Freud’s The Future of an Illusion or, perhaps, on that of Dawkins’ The God Delusion. However, our paper is not focused on the theoretical object of the study of religion; rather it is a reflective comment on our own aspirations for the field to which we have committed our careers. The historical record, we maintain, shows that no undergraduate departments of Religious Studies have fully implemented a scientific program of study and research since such an approach was first advocated in the late nineteenth century – much less has there been any broad establishment of such a disciplinary field of study. And we argue – on scientific grounds – that such study is not ever likely to occur in that or any other setting. In our judgment, therefore, to entertain a hope that such a development is, pragmatically speaking, possible, is to be in the grip of a false and unshakeable delusion. And we “confess” that we ourselves have been so deluded.