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John Teske

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A rock and roll psychology professor who outgrew a small liberal arts college and 25 years of productive scholarship on Cognitive Science and Religion. He has spoken about his work in over 20 countries on 3 continents. Dr. Teske speaks on science and religion, narrative and identity, memory and Memoir, and does workshops for professional associations on "Regenerating Membership Narratives." He has written over 50 blogposts for Neuromyth.com, and has been telling stories at Story Slams since 2018.

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Papers by John Teske

Seeing Her Looking at You: Acquaintance and Variation in the Judgment of Gaze Depth

American Journal of Psychology, 1988

The acquaintance of subject and looker as well as the depth of gaze affected male subjects&#3... more The acquaintance of subject and looker as well as the depth of gaze affected male subjects&#39; judgments of a female assistant&#39;s looking behavior. In a situation ruling out visual interaction, eye-contact gazes were located no more accurately than other gazes. Nevertheless, although gaze depths were not accurately discriminated, gazes deviating vertically and horizontally, to the edge of the head and just beyond the head, were located with some accuracy. The pattern of errors was toward the head and away from the body. Acquaintance produces a stronger bias away from the body, and may produce other interaction-facilitating biases.

Creation: Law and Probability.Edited by Fraser Watts

Zygon, Mar 1, 2010

Meta-Attitudinal Similarity and Relationship Closeness

Psychological Reports, Dec 1, 1993

This study investigated a possible mediation between attitudinal similarity and closeness of rela... more This study investigated a possible mediation between attitudinal similarity and closeness of relationship by similarities in the meta-attitudinal prioritization of attitudinal issues. Members of 22 romantic couples rated their positions on 22 issues and then rank-ordered their priority. Rank-order correlations were higher for couples than noncouple pairs and, when analyses were restricted to couples' high-priority attitudes, attitude dissimilarity correlated with closeness of relationship. Results suggest that emotional closeness may require some attitudinal friction in otherwise interdependent couples.

Cyberpsychology, Human Relationships, and Our Virtual Interiors

Zygon, Sep 1, 2002

Recent research suggests an "Internet paradox"-that a communications technology might reduce soci... more Recent research suggests an "Internet paradox"-that a communications technology might reduce social involvement and psychological well-being. In this article I examine some of the limitations of current Internet communication, including those of access, medium, presentation, and choice, that bear on the formation and maintenance of social relationships. I also explore issues central to human meaning in a technological culture-those of the history of the self, of individuality, and of human relationships-and suggest that social forces, technological and otherwise, have increasingly eroded our social interconnectedness and even produced psychological fragmentation. Finally, by considering the psychology of privacy, subjectivity, and intimacy, I look at the historical and developmental processes of internalization by which we construct the "virtual interior" of mind. Understanding this link between human meaning and technological culture, in the form and pattern of our virtual interiors, may help us to see opportunities as well as dangers for the growth of our humanity, our ethics, and our spirituality.

The Spiritual Limits of Neuropsychological Life

Zygon, Jun 1, 1996

. How neuropsychology is necessary but insufficient for understanding spirituality is explored. M... more . How neuropsychology is necessary but insufficient for understanding spirituality is explored. Multileveled spiritual requisites are systematically examined in terms of their neuropsychological constituents and limitations. The central “problem of integrity” is articulated via the “modularity” of our neuropsychology, and evidence is presented for disunities of self and consciousness. It is argued that the integrity of self or spirit is a contingent achievement rather than a necessary given. Integrating possibilities include belief, emotion, and relationships. Understanding integrity, and the transformations of self‐surrender and sacrifice, may require explicitly stepping beyond neuropsychology and including the self in a larger system.

From Embodied to Extended Cognition

Zygon, Aug 23, 2013

Embodied cognitive science holds that cognitive processes are deeply and inescapably rooted in ou... more Embodied cognitive science holds that cognitive processes are deeply and inescapably rooted in our bodily interactions with the world. Our finite, contingent, and mortal embodiment may be not only supportive, but in some cases even constitutive of emotions, thoughts, and experiences. My discussion here will work outward from the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of the brain to a nervous system which extends to the boundaries of the body. It will extend to nonneural aspects of embodiment and even beyond the boundaries of the body to prosthetics of various kinds, including symbioses with a broad array of cultural artifacts, our symbolic niche, and our relationships with other embodied human beings. While cognition may not always be situated, its origins are embedded in temporally and spatially limited activities. Cognitive work also can be off-loaded to the body and to the environment in service of action, tool use, group cognition, and social coordination. This can blur the boundaries between brain areas, brain and body, and body and environment, transforming our understanding of mind and personhood to provide a different grounding for faith traditions in general, and of the historically dualist Christian tradition in particular.

A Janus Face Upon Religion from Scientific Materialism

Zygon, Jun 1, 2005

Bjørn Grinde's article is a Janus face from a scientific insider looking out toward religion and ... more Bjørn Grinde's article is a Janus face from a scientific insider looking out toward religion and from a religious outsider looking in. His scientific story of the evolutionary and present advantages of religion is laudable but incomplete, as the logic of commitment strategies might provide a fuller account of what produces the value of religious faith. His scientific presuppositions nevertheless might be taken as exhibiting some hubris, particularly in the limits of his instrumental ethics. Finally, the variety and potential incommensurability of both theistic and nontheistic religious views render his distinction between "minimal" and "elaborated" views of God problematic as a route to finding a scientifically credible view by which science might move to optimize the value of religion. Nevertheless, the goal of doing so might be supported by several structural features of religious views, of individual transformation and of hopes for the future, which may be supported by the evolutionary logic of commitment strategies at both individual and group levels.

The effects of object alignment on the representation of depth in young children's drawings

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Aug 1, 1992

Abstract Light and Humphreys (1981, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 31, 521530) provid... more

Externalism, Relational Selves, and Redemptive Relationships

Zygon, Feb 22, 2011

The dangerous level of individuality in contemporary Western culture is informed by a conception ... more The dangerous level of individuality in contemporary Western culture is informed by a conception of mind, self, and soul as internal to the central nervous system. The historical development of this view has produced a bounded and self-contained individual at odds with communal life. Happily, scientific and philosophical studies of mind are coming to view the human mind as embodied, enactive, encultured, and embedded in social and technical networks, and as a construction not limited to the boundaries of the individual organism. Mental phenomena are hybrids of events in the head and events in the world to which they are often coupled, not least of which are with other people. There are mutual and reciprocal implications of this externalism for a number of religious themes. Our understanding of redemption might better be bound to our relationships with others, including our bodies and our sexuality, rather than to a private, individual relationship with the sacred.

Cognitive Neuroscience, Temporal Ordering, and the Human Spirit

Zygon, Dec 1, 2001

Understanding purpose and intent requires attention to our experience of time. Cognitive neurosci... more Understanding purpose and intent requires attention to our experience of time. Cognitive neuroscientific research into the functional and neural substrates of higher cognitive functions have direct bearing on the experience of temporal ordering. Consciousness, located within the short span of working memory, is made cognitively possible and evolutionarily valuable by biological constraints in time. These constraints, including our longevity, make thought about more extended events both possible and useful. Such cognitive processes, rooted in the neurophysiology of cortical function, are a sine qua non for the construction of meaning, relationship, morality, and purposes that may extend beyond our mortality. Research in the cognitive neurosciences is overviewed, and implications are discussed for questions of mortality, design and intention, the reconstruction of meaning, and the experience of eternity.

Meta-Attitudinal Similarity and Relationship Closeness1

Psychological Reports, Dec 1, 1993

This study investigated a possible mediation between attitudinal similarity and closeness of rela... more This study investigated a possible mediation between attitudinal similarity and closeness of relationship by similarities in the meta-attitudinal prioritization of attitudinal issues. Members of 22 romantic couples rated their positions on 22 issues and then rank-ordered their priority. Rank-order correlations were higher for couples than noncouple pairs and, when analyses were restricted to couples' high-priority attitudes, attitude dissimilarity correlated with closeness of relationship. Results suggest that emotional closeness may require some attitudinal friction in otherwise interdependent couples.

Levels of Organization and the Development of Social Knowledge

During socialization, individuals begin to understand increasingly bOader and more abstract units... more During socialization, individuals begin to understand increasingly bOader and more abstract units of personal and social,. reality. Subje6ts (N=97) ranging in age from 13 to late middle age completed a linguistic task in which they could impose higher ordek conceptions on lower order'descriptions by identifying different°l evel similarities within sets of three situations. Results demonstrated the usefulness of a hierarchical system of atiganizational levels for investigating the developthent of social ' 4 knowledge. Subjects'were.less successful overall in finding higher 1,0

Levels of Organization in Formal and Informal Events

Psychological Reports, Apr 1, 1986

Subjects found similarities among seven levels of organization within two formal and two informal... more Subjects found similarities among seven levels of organization within two formal and two informal collections of human events. Levels of organization included body-parts, movement, behavior, aaion, disposition, relationship, and grouping. Similarity-difference judgments were made within sets of three event-descriptions combining adjacent levels of organization. With comparisons involving higher levels, subjects were less likely to select the higher of two intended simi1ar:cies. Subjects also showed a preference for similarities based on action. Female, better educated, and nonathletic subjects were relatively more likely to seIect the higher of adjacent-level similarities. Decreases in the likelihood of firding the higher similarities across higher and higherlevel comparisons were monotonic for informal events but nonmonotonic for formal events; on the average, subjects were less likely to find the higher-level similarities in comparis3ns drawn from formal events. Results are discussed in terms of changes in ability to differentiate levels of organization across different, but multi-leveled kinds of events. 'This article is based on research presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psvcholoaical Association. Boston. MA. March 21-24. 1985. Fundina was ~rovided bv a grant &om the capitol' ~anapu; Research Fund. Requests for reprrnts should be se& to John A

Levels of organization in urban navigation

Journal of Environmental Psychology, Dec 1, 1986

This study examined the relationship between urban experience, indexed by residential proximity t... more This study examined the relationship between urban experience, indexed by residential proximity to and lifetime frequency of contact with an urban center, and the ability to identify five different levels of information pertinent to navigation. Lower levels included traditional spatial components of place, path and node. Higher levels included functional urban goals (destinations) and their strategic ordering (itineraries). Identifications of each component were made from photographs of its parts. Identifications of destinations and itineraries correlated highly with nodes. Indices of experience correlated more highly with functional than spatial identifications. More experienced subjects generally identified more components at all levels, and higher-level identifications were generally more difficult, but closer residents were less likely to find functional identifications more difficult than spatial. Results are discussed in terms of skill acquisition and variations in urban transactions.

Varieties of Reasoning: Assessing Adequacy

Zygon, Jun 1, 2003

Helmut Reich's theory of relational and contextual reasoning is a courageous initiative for the r... more Helmut Reich's theory of relational and contextual reasoning is a courageous initiative for the resolution of cognitive conflicts between apparently incompatible or incommensurable views. Built upon Piagetian logico-mathematical reasoning, cognitive complexity theory, and dialectical and analogical reasoning, it includes the development of a both/and logic inclusive of binary either/or logic. Reich provides philosophic, theoretical, and even initial empirical support for the development of this form of reasoning along with a heuristic for its application. A valuable step beyond the limits of binary, static, and formal reasoning, it takes relationship, context, and perspectival variations seriously in an explicitly reflective and iterative system. We can and do address conflicts not resolvable by conventional appeals to logic or evidence, including those at epistemic boundaries or produced by belief-commitment differences. Although this form of reasoning has real promise, including stepping beyond complementarity in the religion-science dialogue, it seems better directed to causally explanatory theories than to other forms of rendering meaning. Finally, its coextension requirement may render it problematic where functionally coherent explananda cannot be identified or are themselves produced or constituted by a belief system.

The Haunting of the Human Spirit

Zygon, Jun 1, 1999

Understanding the human spirit, the thinking, motivating, feeling aspect of a person, need not en... more Understanding the human spirit, the thinking, motivating, feeling aspect of a person, need not entail supernatural reference in any more than a boundary sense. Methodological naturalism accounts for many putatively supernatural experiences in terms of naturalistic and scientific research. Fairy tales have natural functions, naturalistic accounts of miracles can have moral and spiritual power, and neuropsychological research can have value in understanding experiences of ghosts, apparitions, and presences. Even beliefs in personal immortality, at odds with current neurobiology, may serve a range of psychological functions and may raise more moral questions than they answer. Naturalistic accounts can make spiritual explorations possible where supernatural answers provide epistemic barriers.

Against Generic “Behavior”

Psychological Reports, Apr 1, 1984

An argument is presented against the generic use of the term “behavior” in characterizing the ent... more An argument is presented against the generic use of the term “behavior” in characterizing the entire range of human activity. Historical variations in the use of “behavior” are mentioned, and a terminology is suggested based on part-whole rather than class-inclusion relations and incorporating distinctions based on function and intention. Support for an emergence-holist approach to distinct levels of observed human activity is drawn from the literature on event perception and on the perceptual segmentation of behavior. Finally, an emergent-unit vocabulary is put forth to distinguish between action, behavior, and movement. Further extensions are suggested with an aim toward bridging the person-behavior gap.

William R. LaFleur

The Road is Made by Walking: An Introduction

Zygon®

Knowing Ourselves by Telling Stories to Ourselves

Zygon®

Part of the epistemological crisis of the twentieth century was caused by empirically establishin... more Part of the epistemological crisis of the twentieth century was caused by empirically establishing that introspection provides little reliable self-knowledge. While we all have full actual selves to which our self-representations do not do full justice, we focus on the formation and existence of a narrative self, and on problematic reliability. We will explore the cognitive neuroscience behind its limitations, including pathological forms of confabulation, the generation of plausible but insufficiently grounded accounts of our actions, and the normal patterns of narrative creation and checking. The evolutionary logic of self-deception may produce adaptive results, particularly in service of the “commitment strategies” that give our species results otherwise unobtainable. It is largely in our close relationships with other human beings, the relationships so well served by these very strategies, that we may find the powerful counterbalancing feedback which may provide positive change and self-transcendence. Nevertheless, we will also warn about a shadow side for which religion can provide both acknowledgment and hope.

Seeing Her Looking at You: Acquaintance and Variation in the Judgment of Gaze Depth

American Journal of Psychology, 1988

The acquaintance of subject and looker as well as the depth of gaze affected male subjects&#3... more The acquaintance of subject and looker as well as the depth of gaze affected male subjects&#39; judgments of a female assistant&#39;s looking behavior. In a situation ruling out visual interaction, eye-contact gazes were located no more accurately than other gazes. Nevertheless, although gaze depths were not accurately discriminated, gazes deviating vertically and horizontally, to the edge of the head and just beyond the head, were located with some accuracy. The pattern of errors was toward the head and away from the body. Acquaintance produces a stronger bias away from the body, and may produce other interaction-facilitating biases.

Creation: Law and Probability.Edited by Fraser Watts

Zygon, Mar 1, 2010

Meta-Attitudinal Similarity and Relationship Closeness

Psychological Reports, Dec 1, 1993

This study investigated a possible mediation between attitudinal similarity and closeness of rela... more This study investigated a possible mediation between attitudinal similarity and closeness of relationship by similarities in the meta-attitudinal prioritization of attitudinal issues. Members of 22 romantic couples rated their positions on 22 issues and then rank-ordered their priority. Rank-order correlations were higher for couples than noncouple pairs and, when analyses were restricted to couples' high-priority attitudes, attitude dissimilarity correlated with closeness of relationship. Results suggest that emotional closeness may require some attitudinal friction in otherwise interdependent couples.

Cyberpsychology, Human Relationships, and Our Virtual Interiors

Zygon, Sep 1, 2002

Recent research suggests an "Internet paradox"-that a communications technology might reduce soci... more Recent research suggests an "Internet paradox"-that a communications technology might reduce social involvement and psychological well-being. In this article I examine some of the limitations of current Internet communication, including those of access, medium, presentation, and choice, that bear on the formation and maintenance of social relationships. I also explore issues central to human meaning in a technological culture-those of the history of the self, of individuality, and of human relationships-and suggest that social forces, technological and otherwise, have increasingly eroded our social interconnectedness and even produced psychological fragmentation. Finally, by considering the psychology of privacy, subjectivity, and intimacy, I look at the historical and developmental processes of internalization by which we construct the "virtual interior" of mind. Understanding this link between human meaning and technological culture, in the form and pattern of our virtual interiors, may help us to see opportunities as well as dangers for the growth of our humanity, our ethics, and our spirituality.

The Spiritual Limits of Neuropsychological Life

Zygon, Jun 1, 1996

. How neuropsychology is necessary but insufficient for understanding spirituality is explored. M... more . How neuropsychology is necessary but insufficient for understanding spirituality is explored. Multileveled spiritual requisites are systematically examined in terms of their neuropsychological constituents and limitations. The central “problem of integrity” is articulated via the “modularity” of our neuropsychology, and evidence is presented for disunities of self and consciousness. It is argued that the integrity of self or spirit is a contingent achievement rather than a necessary given. Integrating possibilities include belief, emotion, and relationships. Understanding integrity, and the transformations of self‐surrender and sacrifice, may require explicitly stepping beyond neuropsychology and including the self in a larger system.

From Embodied to Extended Cognition

Zygon, Aug 23, 2013

Embodied cognitive science holds that cognitive processes are deeply and inescapably rooted in ou... more Embodied cognitive science holds that cognitive processes are deeply and inescapably rooted in our bodily interactions with the world. Our finite, contingent, and mortal embodiment may be not only supportive, but in some cases even constitutive of emotions, thoughts, and experiences. My discussion here will work outward from the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of the brain to a nervous system which extends to the boundaries of the body. It will extend to nonneural aspects of embodiment and even beyond the boundaries of the body to prosthetics of various kinds, including symbioses with a broad array of cultural artifacts, our symbolic niche, and our relationships with other embodied human beings. While cognition may not always be situated, its origins are embedded in temporally and spatially limited activities. Cognitive work also can be off-loaded to the body and to the environment in service of action, tool use, group cognition, and social coordination. This can blur the boundaries between brain areas, brain and body, and body and environment, transforming our understanding of mind and personhood to provide a different grounding for faith traditions in general, and of the historically dualist Christian tradition in particular.

A Janus Face Upon Religion from Scientific Materialism

Zygon, Jun 1, 2005

Bjørn Grinde's article is a Janus face from a scientific insider looking out toward religion and ... more Bjørn Grinde's article is a Janus face from a scientific insider looking out toward religion and from a religious outsider looking in. His scientific story of the evolutionary and present advantages of religion is laudable but incomplete, as the logic of commitment strategies might provide a fuller account of what produces the value of religious faith. His scientific presuppositions nevertheless might be taken as exhibiting some hubris, particularly in the limits of his instrumental ethics. Finally, the variety and potential incommensurability of both theistic and nontheistic religious views render his distinction between "minimal" and "elaborated" views of God problematic as a route to finding a scientifically credible view by which science might move to optimize the value of religion. Nevertheless, the goal of doing so might be supported by several structural features of religious views, of individual transformation and of hopes for the future, which may be supported by the evolutionary logic of commitment strategies at both individual and group levels.

The effects of object alignment on the representation of depth in young children's drawings

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Aug 1, 1992

Abstract Light and Humphreys (1981, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 31, 521530) provid... more

Externalism, Relational Selves, and Redemptive Relationships

Zygon, Feb 22, 2011

The dangerous level of individuality in contemporary Western culture is informed by a conception ... more The dangerous level of individuality in contemporary Western culture is informed by a conception of mind, self, and soul as internal to the central nervous system. The historical development of this view has produced a bounded and self-contained individual at odds with communal life. Happily, scientific and philosophical studies of mind are coming to view the human mind as embodied, enactive, encultured, and embedded in social and technical networks, and as a construction not limited to the boundaries of the individual organism. Mental phenomena are hybrids of events in the head and events in the world to which they are often coupled, not least of which are with other people. There are mutual and reciprocal implications of this externalism for a number of religious themes. Our understanding of redemption might better be bound to our relationships with others, including our bodies and our sexuality, rather than to a private, individual relationship with the sacred.

Cognitive Neuroscience, Temporal Ordering, and the Human Spirit

Zygon, Dec 1, 2001

Understanding purpose and intent requires attention to our experience of time. Cognitive neurosci... more Understanding purpose and intent requires attention to our experience of time. Cognitive neuroscientific research into the functional and neural substrates of higher cognitive functions have direct bearing on the experience of temporal ordering. Consciousness, located within the short span of working memory, is made cognitively possible and evolutionarily valuable by biological constraints in time. These constraints, including our longevity, make thought about more extended events both possible and useful. Such cognitive processes, rooted in the neurophysiology of cortical function, are a sine qua non for the construction of meaning, relationship, morality, and purposes that may extend beyond our mortality. Research in the cognitive neurosciences is overviewed, and implications are discussed for questions of mortality, design and intention, the reconstruction of meaning, and the experience of eternity.

Meta-Attitudinal Similarity and Relationship Closeness1

Psychological Reports, Dec 1, 1993

This study investigated a possible mediation between attitudinal similarity and closeness of rela... more This study investigated a possible mediation between attitudinal similarity and closeness of relationship by similarities in the meta-attitudinal prioritization of attitudinal issues. Members of 22 romantic couples rated their positions on 22 issues and then rank-ordered their priority. Rank-order correlations were higher for couples than noncouple pairs and, when analyses were restricted to couples' high-priority attitudes, attitude dissimilarity correlated with closeness of relationship. Results suggest that emotional closeness may require some attitudinal friction in otherwise interdependent couples.

Levels of Organization and the Development of Social Knowledge

During socialization, individuals begin to understand increasingly bOader and more abstract units... more During socialization, individuals begin to understand increasingly bOader and more abstract units of personal and social,. reality. Subje6ts (N=97) ranging in age from 13 to late middle age completed a linguistic task in which they could impose higher ordek conceptions on lower order'descriptions by identifying different°l evel similarities within sets of three situations. Results demonstrated the usefulness of a hierarchical system of atiganizational levels for investigating the developthent of social ' 4 knowledge. Subjects'were.less successful overall in finding higher 1,0

Levels of Organization in Formal and Informal Events

Psychological Reports, Apr 1, 1986

Subjects found similarities among seven levels of organization within two formal and two informal... more Subjects found similarities among seven levels of organization within two formal and two informal collections of human events. Levels of organization included body-parts, movement, behavior, aaion, disposition, relationship, and grouping. Similarity-difference judgments were made within sets of three event-descriptions combining adjacent levels of organization. With comparisons involving higher levels, subjects were less likely to select the higher of two intended simi1ar:cies. Subjects also showed a preference for similarities based on action. Female, better educated, and nonathletic subjects were relatively more likely to seIect the higher of adjacent-level similarities. Decreases in the likelihood of firding the higher similarities across higher and higherlevel comparisons were monotonic for informal events but nonmonotonic for formal events; on the average, subjects were less likely to find the higher-level similarities in comparis3ns drawn from formal events. Results are discussed in terms of changes in ability to differentiate levels of organization across different, but multi-leveled kinds of events. 'This article is based on research presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psvcholoaical Association. Boston. MA. March 21-24. 1985. Fundina was ~rovided bv a grant &om the capitol' ~anapu; Research Fund. Requests for reprrnts should be se& to John A

Levels of organization in urban navigation

Journal of Environmental Psychology, Dec 1, 1986

This study examined the relationship between urban experience, indexed by residential proximity t... more This study examined the relationship between urban experience, indexed by residential proximity to and lifetime frequency of contact with an urban center, and the ability to identify five different levels of information pertinent to navigation. Lower levels included traditional spatial components of place, path and node. Higher levels included functional urban goals (destinations) and their strategic ordering (itineraries). Identifications of each component were made from photographs of its parts. Identifications of destinations and itineraries correlated highly with nodes. Indices of experience correlated more highly with functional than spatial identifications. More experienced subjects generally identified more components at all levels, and higher-level identifications were generally more difficult, but closer residents were less likely to find functional identifications more difficult than spatial. Results are discussed in terms of skill acquisition and variations in urban transactions.

Varieties of Reasoning: Assessing Adequacy

Zygon, Jun 1, 2003

Helmut Reich's theory of relational and contextual reasoning is a courageous initiative for the r... more Helmut Reich's theory of relational and contextual reasoning is a courageous initiative for the resolution of cognitive conflicts between apparently incompatible or incommensurable views. Built upon Piagetian logico-mathematical reasoning, cognitive complexity theory, and dialectical and analogical reasoning, it includes the development of a both/and logic inclusive of binary either/or logic. Reich provides philosophic, theoretical, and even initial empirical support for the development of this form of reasoning along with a heuristic for its application. A valuable step beyond the limits of binary, static, and formal reasoning, it takes relationship, context, and perspectival variations seriously in an explicitly reflective and iterative system. We can and do address conflicts not resolvable by conventional appeals to logic or evidence, including those at epistemic boundaries or produced by belief-commitment differences. Although this form of reasoning has real promise, including stepping beyond complementarity in the religion-science dialogue, it seems better directed to causally explanatory theories than to other forms of rendering meaning. Finally, its coextension requirement may render it problematic where functionally coherent explananda cannot be identified or are themselves produced or constituted by a belief system.

The Haunting of the Human Spirit

Zygon, Jun 1, 1999

Understanding the human spirit, the thinking, motivating, feeling aspect of a person, need not en... more Understanding the human spirit, the thinking, motivating, feeling aspect of a person, need not entail supernatural reference in any more than a boundary sense. Methodological naturalism accounts for many putatively supernatural experiences in terms of naturalistic and scientific research. Fairy tales have natural functions, naturalistic accounts of miracles can have moral and spiritual power, and neuropsychological research can have value in understanding experiences of ghosts, apparitions, and presences. Even beliefs in personal immortality, at odds with current neurobiology, may serve a range of psychological functions and may raise more moral questions than they answer. Naturalistic accounts can make spiritual explorations possible where supernatural answers provide epistemic barriers.

Against Generic “Behavior”

Psychological Reports, Apr 1, 1984

An argument is presented against the generic use of the term “behavior” in characterizing the ent... more An argument is presented against the generic use of the term “behavior” in characterizing the entire range of human activity. Historical variations in the use of “behavior” are mentioned, and a terminology is suggested based on part-whole rather than class-inclusion relations and incorporating distinctions based on function and intention. Support for an emergence-holist approach to distinct levels of observed human activity is drawn from the literature on event perception and on the perceptual segmentation of behavior. Finally, an emergent-unit vocabulary is put forth to distinguish between action, behavior, and movement. Further extensions are suggested with an aim toward bridging the person-behavior gap.

William R. LaFleur

The Road is Made by Walking: An Introduction

Zygon®

Knowing Ourselves by Telling Stories to Ourselves

Zygon®

Part of the epistemological crisis of the twentieth century was caused by empirically establishin... more Part of the epistemological crisis of the twentieth century was caused by empirically establishing that introspection provides little reliable self-knowledge. While we all have full actual selves to which our self-representations do not do full justice, we focus on the formation and existence of a narrative self, and on problematic reliability. We will explore the cognitive neuroscience behind its limitations, including pathological forms of confabulation, the generation of plausible but insufficiently grounded accounts of our actions, and the normal patterns of narrative creation and checking. The evolutionary logic of self-deception may produce adaptive results, particularly in service of the “commitment strategies” that give our species results otherwise unobtainable. It is largely in our close relationships with other human beings, the relationships so well served by these very strategies, that we may find the powerful counterbalancing feedback which may provide positive change and self-transcendence. Nevertheless, we will also warn about a shadow side for which religion can provide both acknowledgment and hope.