Searching for Coherence in a Complex World: Introduction to the Special Issue on Explanatory Coexistence

摘要

Traditionally, science and religion have often been viewed in competition, with the belief that rational, scientific thought will win out in the end. This view is captured by the secularization hypothesis, which suggests that with advances in knowledge and technology, magical, religious, and other supernatural beliefs and explanations in a society would be driven out by more rational, logical, and scientific ones [Norris & Inglehart, 2004]. In young children, a similar view was endorsed by Pia-get [1928], who argued that young children's thinking was dominated by magic, yet with age and experience, logical and rational thought replaced the magical thinking of childhood. To date, there has been little support for the secularization hypothesis, as supernatural beliefs seem to be as common as they were a hundred years ago. Likewise, the authors of the current volume provide compelling arguments that suggest that Piaget's view of the stage-like replacement of magical and illogical thought with scientific and logic forms of thinking is not supported. Rather, recent psychological research, much of it conducted by the authors of this special issue, actually suggests that supernatural and scientific thought coexists in the minds of both children and adults. The focus of this issue is on exploring how and when individuals endorse epistemologies that might be construed as stemming from a number of highly different world views. An overall goal of the issue is to explore the conceptual processes that enable individuals to endorse seemingly inconsistent epistemologies. Here we provide a brief overview of the contributions to the volume.