Project acronym EAST-WEST
Project Vernacular religion on the boundary of Eastern and Western Christianity: continuity, changes and interactions
Researcher (PI) Zsoltné Csalog
Host Institution (HI) MAGYAR TUDOMANYOS AKADEMIA BOLCSESZETTUDOMANYI KUTATOKOZPONT
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2012-ADG_20120411
Summary This interdisciplinary research project, relying on mutually complementary historical, anthropological and folklore investigations, will examine continuities and transformations in vernacular religion in the border-zone between Eastern and Western Christianity. The project will have three foci: 1) the role of the religious worldview and norms in past and present communities; 2) change and religious modernisation including the intertwining of the breaking up of the traditional worldview and the appearance of consumer-type attitudes of New Age religiosity; 3) the role of religion in identity formation and the emergence of religious pluralism and co-operation as well as of religious antagonism and conflict between different denominations and nationalities in the region. Members of the project will study these questions in Hungarian, Romanian, Serbian, Ukrainian and Croatian communities of mixed religion. Thematically the research will be organised around exploring symbolic exchange relationships (demonology and witchcraft) sacred communication (shrines, visions, miracles, saints) and healing using both historical sources and contemporary anthropological field work.
The project builds on two previous long-term historical/folkloristic research projects led by PI Éva Pócs and will expand and complement their findings through contemporary anthropological field research and continued archival work. Integrating the results of the current and earlier projects through an innovative electronic document collection, embedded in a geographical information system, will enhance the impact of both sets of materials.
The research will bring us closer to understanding a) inter-religious relationships between Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox believers, b) problems of national identity underlying religious antagonisms, and c) how religious and cultural border zones separate and unite, generate conflict and create mutual understanding, potentially promoting peaceful co-existence.
Summary
This interdisciplinary research project, relying on mutually complementary historical, anthropological and folklore investigations, will examine continuities and transformations in vernacular religion in the border-zone between Eastern and Western Christianity. The project will have three foci: 1) the role of the religious worldview and norms in past and present communities; 2) change and religious modernisation including the intertwining of the breaking up of the traditional worldview and the appearance of consumer-type attitudes of New Age religiosity; 3) the role of religion in identity formation and the emergence of religious pluralism and co-operation as well as of religious antagonism and conflict between different denominations and nationalities in the region. Members of the project will study these questions in Hungarian, Romanian, Serbian, Ukrainian and Croatian communities of mixed religion. Thematically the research will be organised around exploring symbolic exchange relationships (demonology and witchcraft) sacred communication (shrines, visions, miracles, saints) and healing using both historical sources and contemporary anthropological field work.
The project builds on two previous long-term historical/folkloristic research projects led by PI Éva Pócs and will expand and complement their findings through contemporary anthropological field research and continued archival work. Integrating the results of the current and earlier projects through an innovative electronic document collection, embedded in a geographical information system, will enhance the impact of both sets of materials.
The research will bring us closer to understanding a) inter-religious relationships between Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox believers, b) problems of national identity underlying religious antagonisms, and c) how religious and cultural border zones separate and unite, generate conflict and create mutual understanding, potentially promoting peaceful co-existence.
Max ERC Funding
2 079 485 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-09-01, End date: 2018-08-31
Project acronym PreLog
Project Precursors of logical reasoning in human infants
Researcher (PI) Erno Teglas
Host Institution (HI) KOZEP-EUROPAI EGYETEM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2014-STG
Summary There is no other field that is more controversial in psychology than that of human reasoning. This project advances a novel theoretical framework focused on the nature and the origins of rationality and could potentially resolve some of these controversies. Theories targeting the mechanisms that allow rational inferences have defined rationality as a function of how much reasoning adheres to formal rules of probability calculus and logic. Classical research with adults and older children collected a large amount of data both in favor and against human rationality, suggesting that reasoning abilities follow a slow maturation. Recent findings on infants’ probabilistic reasoning, including my own earlier research, however, do not support this view. Already preverbal infants seem to form expectations about probabilistic events in accordance with Bayesian rules of inference (Téglás et al, 2011). Here I argue for a similar paradigm change in a related domain, that of deductive reasoning.
In contrast to earlier accounts, I propose that even preverbal infants may possess a core set of logical operations that empower them with sophisticated inferential abilities. First, I focus on the representational precursors of this competence. I argue that infants recruit specific abilities to exploit the conceptual structure of specific event categories that enable them to form logical representations. Thus, information could be stored in a format that can potentially serve as input for subsequent inferences. Further, I will investigate infants’ core logical operations and test how they integrate multiple steps of inferences. This system - indispensable for integrating different bits of knowledge - helps infants to discover information that was not actually present in the input. Such investigations, informed also by adequate neuropsychological evidence would thus contribute to understand the unique nature of human rationality.
Summary
There is no other field that is more controversial in psychology than that of human reasoning. This project advances a novel theoretical framework focused on the nature and the origins of rationality and could potentially resolve some of these controversies. Theories targeting the mechanisms that allow rational inferences have defined rationality as a function of how much reasoning adheres to formal rules of probability calculus and logic. Classical research with adults and older children collected a large amount of data both in favor and against human rationality, suggesting that reasoning abilities follow a slow maturation. Recent findings on infants’ probabilistic reasoning, including my own earlier research, however, do not support this view. Already preverbal infants seem to form expectations about probabilistic events in accordance with Bayesian rules of inference (Téglás et al, 2011). Here I argue for a similar paradigm change in a related domain, that of deductive reasoning.
In contrast to earlier accounts, I propose that even preverbal infants may possess a core set of logical operations that empower them with sophisticated inferential abilities. First, I focus on the representational precursors of this competence. I argue that infants recruit specific abilities to exploit the conceptual structure of specific event categories that enable them to form logical representations. Thus, information could be stored in a format that can potentially serve as input for subsequent inferences. Further, I will investigate infants’ core logical operations and test how they integrate multiple steps of inferences. This system - indispensable for integrating different bits of knowledge - helps infants to discover information that was not actually present in the input. Such investigations, informed also by adequate neuropsychological evidence would thus contribute to understand the unique nature of human rationality.
Max ERC Funding
1 498 137 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
