宗教的神经科学研究及其还原论困境  

Neurological Study of Religion and the Dilemma of Reductionism

作　　者：刘莉源 LIU Li-yuan(School of Philosophy,Beijing Normal University,Beijing 100875,China)

机构地区：[1]北京师范大学哲学学院,北京100875

出　　处：《自然辩证法研究》2022年第4期30-35,共6页Studies in Dialectics of Nature

摘　　要：20世纪70年代以来,随着神经科学及脑成像技术的发展,部分神经学家开始关注大脑与宗教的关系,他们以还原物理主义为基础,尝试探索宗教体验、信念及行为的神经机制。发展至今,其主要成就集中于对宗教体验神经相关物的寻找和定位,大致经历了单一脑区还原、多重脑区还原及功能网络还原三个阶段。当前这一研究领域存在极端还原主义的倾向,一方面忽视大脑整体的复杂性,将宗教体验仅归结为特定大脑模块的特定功能;另一方面过度推论,排斥不同层级现象的独立属性,将宗教体验解释为“仅仅是”神经电化学活动。为避免认识误区,应对其研究问题和推论进行合适的限定。Since the 1970 s, with the development of neuroscience and neuroimaging technology, the neuroscience of religion has emerged. Its theoretical basis is reductive physicalism, aiming to explore the neural mechanism of religious phenomena. Despite of many fruits in searching for the neural correlates of religious experience, it faces many challenges. On the one hand, it ignores the complexity of the brain as a whole and attributes religious experience only to specific brain regions. On the other hand, it has the tendency of over inference that it denies the independent property of religious experience and reduces it to “only” chemistry. In order to avoid bias, the question and the inferences should be suitably constrained.

关 键 词：宗教体验 神经基础 还原物理主义 还原论困境 

分 类 号：N031[自然科学总论—科学技术哲学]