process studies supplement...
Process Studies Supplement 8, 2005
Neuro Wine In Old Vessels: A Critique Of D’Aquili And Newberg
John D. Gilroy, Jr.The work of Eugene d’Aquili and Andrew Newberg has enhanced the study of human spirituality by showing how myth, ritual, morality, theology, and mysticism have all been shaped by neurological and evolutionary factors. However, a systematic inspection of their position suggests that the authors’ neuropsychology and neurotheology rely heavily on traditional philosophical underpinnings which are neither scientific nor theoretically adequate. Their mind/body position, a hybrid of dual aspect and epiphenomenalist theories, fails to do justice to human mentality, individuality, and freedom, while their epistemology, a neurological Kantianism, does the same with subjects, objects, causality, and time. Process philosophy provides in many respects a more plausible, naturalistic way to harmonize brain science and evolution with human spirituality, as well as to re-interpret the alleged loss of time, space and self in mystical states.