HOME > News Archives > 2011 > Research Seminar on Understanding Religion through Brain Science: Prospects and Critical Issues (Friday, 18th February, 2011)

Research Seminar on Understanding Religion through Brain Science: Prospects and Critical Issues (Friday, 18th February, 2011)

This seminar is to be held as follows.
 *Admission free, no registration required.
 *Held in English.

Anyone interested in our researches are welcomed. Please click for access map and reference below.

Lecturers and Titles:
Henk Barendregt
(Chair Foundations of Mathematics and Computer Science & mind-brain- mindfulness research, Radboud University)
"Neurocognitive models of the mind inspired by Buddhist psychology and vipassana"
Gerald C. Cupchik
(Department of Psychology, University of Toronto at Scarborough)
"Does G-d have an Address in the Brain? A New Light on Religiously Elevated Emotions in General Theory of Emotion"

Chair::

Mitsuhiro Okada(Global COE CARLS, Department of Philosophy, Keio University)

Discussion:

Shigeru Watanabe(Global COE CARLS, Department of Phychology, Keio University)

Keizo Miyasaka(Global COE CARLS, Department of Human Sciences, Keio University)


Venue:Seminar Room 7, Building for Preventive Medicine & Public Health, Shinanomachi Campus, School of Medicine, Keio University (access map)

Date and Time:Friday, 18th February, 2011; 16:30-20:00

The studies of mind and consciousness have been developed into a new horizon with the introduction of fMRI research; with this recent trend in scope, two distinguished researchers of different specialties deal with new approaches to the study of religious consciousness and elevated emotions. Professor Henk Barendregt of Radboud University focuses on neurocognitive models of the mind with reference to Buddhism to use meditation as a tool to get hints where neurophysiology can look to find interesting things for the advancement of this topic - he received the Spinoza award in 2002 for his highly regarded scientific achievement as a mathematical logician, specialized in lambda calculus, which is a theory to describes 'reflection' ; he himself is a qualified teacher in the tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw for meditational practices. . Prof. Gerald Cupchik of the University of Toronto discusses elevated emotions in religious contexts and aesthetic of emotions from his long-pursued unique scholarship on a general theory of emotion with combined methodologies including fMRI oriented research. His original perspective reaches the latent emotional root behind emotions in religion and art. He received Rudolf Arnheim Award from Division 10 of the American Psychological Association for "distinguished contribution to research in psychological aesthetics." Religious consciousness, altered states of consciousness including hypnotic state of mind and meditational consciousness will be partly discussed. Commentaries from researchers engaged in advanced research on logic and sensibility from different disciplines at CARLS, Keio try to articulate new research possibilities in the intersection of brain and religion, that concerns brain sciences, religious studies, evolutionary psychology, logics and anthropology.


Reference (in Japanese):
Understanding Religion through Brain Science: Prospects and Critical Issues