Comprehensive Publication List

BOOKS

McCauley, R. N. (with E. Thomas Lawson). (2017). Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion: A Head Start. London: Bloomsbury.

McCauley, R. N.  (2011).  Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not.  New York:  Oxford University Press.  (i-xv, 326 pages plus index)

Whitehouse, H. and McCauley, R. N. (eds.) (2005). Mind and Religion: Psychological and Cognitive Foundations of Religiosity. Walnut Grove, CA: Alta Mira Press. “Introduction,” 6-30.

McCauley, R. N. and Lawson, E. T. (2002). Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

McCauley, R. N. (ed.) (1996). The Churchlands and Their Critics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. “Introduction,” 1-13 and chapter 1, 17-47 (listed below).

Lawson, E. T. and McCauley, R. N. (1990). Rethinking Religion: Connecting Cognition and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

paperback edition (1993). second printing (1996).

The Psychological and Cognitive Foundations of Religiosity, a special issue of the Journal of Cognition and CultureSPECIAL JOURNAL ISSUES

McCauley, R. N., and Whitehouse, H. (eds.) (2005). The Psychological and Cognitive Foundations of Religiosity; special issue of Journal of Cognition and Culture 5, 1-142.

WEB-BASED PUBLICATIONS

McCauley, R. N.  (2015).  “Philosophical Naturalism and the Cognitive Science of Religion,” Religion Bulletin (portal of the Bulletin for the Study of Religion), July 13, 2015. http://www.equinoxpub.com/blog/2015/07/naasr-notes-robert-n-mccauley/

McCauley, R. N. (2012). “Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not,” The Montreal Review, September 18, 2012.

McCauley, R. N. (2012). “Why Might Our Minds Be Better Suited to Religion Than to Science?” Science + Religion Today.

McCauley, R. N. and Cohen, E. (2010). “Cognitive Science and the Naturalness of Religion,” Philosophy Compass 4, 1-14.

ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS

McCauley, R. N.  (2018).  “Features of Religions as Cognitive By-Products,” Free Inquiry 38 (3), 20-21.

Reprint of McCauley, R. N.  (2012).  “ A Cognitive Science of Religion Will Be Difficult, Expensive, Complicated, Radically Counter-Intuitive, and Possible:  A Response to Martin and Wiebe.”  Journal of the American Academy of Religion 80, 605-610.

McCauley, R. N. (2018).  “Twenty-Five Years In:  Landmark Empirical Findings in the Cognitive Science of Religion,” Filosofia Unisinos 19 (3), 244-262. http://revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/filosofia

Reprint of McCauley, R. N.. (2017). “Twenty-Five Years In:  Landmark Empirical Findings in the Cognitive Science of Religion,”    Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion:  A Head Start (with E. Thomas Lawson).  London:  Bloomsbury, pp. 117-150 (endnotes on pp. 153-54).

McCauley, R. N.  (2017).  “Twenty-Five Years In:  Landmark Empirical Findings in the Cognitive Science of Religion,” Religion Explained?  The Cognitive Science of Religion after Twenty-Five Years.  L. Martin and D. Wiebe (eds.)  London:  Bloomsbury, pp. 17-41.

Reprint of chapter 6 of McCauley, R. N.  (2017).  Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion:  A Head Start. (With E. Thomas Lawson).  London:  Bloomsbury.

McCauley, R. N.  (2016).  “A Cognitive Science of Religion Will Be Difficult, Expensive, Complicated, Radically Counter-Intuitive, and Possible:  A Response to Martin and Wiebe.”  Conversations and Controversies in the Scientific Study of Religion.  L. Martin and D. Wiebe (eds.).  Leiden:  E. J. Brill, 297-301.

McCauley, R. N. (2016). “Cognitive and Evolutionary Approaches to Religion,” Blackwell Companion to Naturalism. K. Clark (ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 462-480.

McCauley, R. N.  (2016).  “Are Gods and Good Governments Culturally and Psychologically Interchangeable?”  Behavioral and Brain Sciences 39, 34-35.

McCauley, R. N. (2015). “La Cognición Natural, La Ciencia Profesional y La Religión Popular,” E. Otero (trans.). Mesa Redonda 8, 22-46.

Spanish translation of McCauley, R. N. (forthcoming). “Maturationally Natural Cognition Impedes Professional Science and Facilitates Popular Religion,” Religion and Science as Forms of Life: Anthropological Insights into Reason and Unreason. C. Salazar and J. Bestard (eds.). Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 25-48.

McCauley, Robert N. (forthcoming).  “Maturationally Natural Cognition, Radically Counter-Intuitive Science, and the Theory Ladenness of Perception,” JOURNAL OF THE GENERAL PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE.

McCauley, R. N. (forthcoming). “Maturationally Natural Cognition Impedes Professional Science and Facilitates Popular Religion,” Reason and Belief in Societies of Knowledge. C. Salazar and J. Bestard (eds.). Oxford: Berghahn Books.

McCauley, R. N. and Lawson, E. T. (forthcoming). “Who Owns ‘Culture’?” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 25.

reprint of McCauley, R. N. and Lawson, E. T. (1996). “Who Owns ‘Culture’?” Method and             Theory in the Study of Religion 8, 171-190.

McCauley, R. N. (2014). “Putting Religious Ritual in Its Place: On Some Ways in Which Humans’ Cognitive Predilections Influence the Locations and Shapes of Religious Rituals,” Archaeology and Ritual Spaces, Locating the Sacred: Theoretical Approaches to the Emplacement of Religion. C. Moser and C. Weiss (eds.). Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 143-163.

Mesoudi, A., Laland, K. N., Boyd, R., Buchanan, B., Flynn, E., McCauley, R. N., Renn, J., Reyes-Garcia, V., Shennan, S., Stout, D., and Tennie, C. (2013). “The Cultural Evolution of Technology and Science,” Cultural Evolution. Strüngmann Forum Reports. Volume 12. P. J. Richerson and M. H. Christiansen (eds.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 193-216.

McCauley, R. N. and Lawson, E. T. (2013). “Who Owns ‘Culture’?” Twenty-Five Years of Theorizing about Religion. Hughes, A. (ed.). Leiden: Brill, pp. 135-155.

reprint of McCauley, R. N. and Lawson, E. T. (1996). “Who Owns ‘Culture’?” Method and             Theory in the Study of Religion 8, 171-190.

McCauley, R. N. (2013). “Scientific Method as Cultural Innovation,” Cultural Evolution. P. J. Richerson and M. H. Christiansen (eds.) pp. 175-190. Strüngmann Forum Reports. Volume 12. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 175-190.

McCauley, R. N. (2013). “Explanatory Pluralism and the Cognitive Science of Religion: Or Why Scholars in Religious Studies Should Stop Worrying about Reductionism,” Mental Culture: Classical Social Theory and the Cognitive Science of Religion. D. Xygalatas and W. W. McCorkle, Jr. (eds.). London: Acumen, pp. 11-32.

McCauley, R. N. (2013). “Why Science Is Exceptional and Religion Is Not: A Response to Commentators on Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not,” Religion, Brain & Behavior 3 (2), 165-182., 165-182.

McCauley, R. N.  (2012).  “About Face:  Philosophical Naturalism, The Heuristic Identity Theory, and Recent Findings about Prosopagnosia,” New Perspectives on Type Identity:  The Mental and the Physical.  S. Gozzano and C. S. Hill (eds.).  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press,  pp. 186-206.

McCauley, R. N. (2012). “The Importance of Being ‘Ernest’,” Integrating the Sciences and Humanities: Interdisciplinary Approaches. E. Slingerland and M. Collard (eds.). New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 266-281.

McCauley, R. N. (2012). “Natural Religion, Unnatural Science,” New Scientist (March 17, 2012) 213, 44-46.

McCauley, R. N. (2010). “How Science and Religion Are More Like Theology and Commonsense Explanations Than They Are Like Each Other: A Cognitive Account,” Chasing Down Religion: In the Sights of History and Cognitive Science. P. Pachis and D. Wiebe (eds.). Thessaloniki: Barbounakis Publications, pp. 242-265.

McCauley, R. N. and Cohen, E. (2010). “Cognitive Science and the Naturalness of Religion,” Philosophy Compass 4, 1-14.

McCauley, R. N. (2009). “Time Is of the Essence: Explanatory Pluralism and Accommodating Theories about Long Term Processes,” Philosophical Psychology 22, 611-635.

McCauley, R. N. (2008). “De la réduction d’une science.” Des Neurosciences à la Philosophie: Neurophilosophie et Philosophie des Neurosciences. P. Poirier and L. Faucher (eds). Paris: Syllepse, 205-231.

McCauley, R. N. and Lawson, E.T. (2007). “Cognition, Religious Ritual, and Archaeology,” The Archaeology of Ritual. E. Kyriakidis (ed.). Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Publications, 209-254.

McCauley, R. N. (2007). “Enriching Philosophical Models of Cross-Scientific Relations: Incorporating Diachronic Theories,” The Matter of the Mind: Philosophical Essays on Psychology, Neuroscience and Reduction. M. Schouten and H. Looren de Jong (eds.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 199-223.

McCauley, R. N. (2007). “Reduction: Models of Cross-Scientific Relations and Their Implications for the Psychology-Neuroscience Interface,” Handbook of the Philosophy of Science: Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science. P. Thagard (ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier, 105-158.

Lawson, E. T. and McCauley, R. N. (2006). “Interpretation and Explanation: Problems and Promise in the Study of Religion.” J. Slone (ed.). Religion and Cognition: A Reader, London: Equinox.

reprint of chapter 1 of Lawson, E. T. and McCauley, R. N. (1990). Rethinking Religion:             Connecting Cognition and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

McCauley, R. N. and Henrich, J. (2006). “Susceptibility to the Müller-Lyer Illusion, Theory Neutral Observation, and the Diachronic Cognitive Penetrability of the Visual Input System” Philosophical Psychology 19, 79-101.

McCauley, R. N. and Whitehouse, H. (2005).”Introduction: New Frontiers in the Cognitive Science of Religion” Journal of Cognition and Culture 5, 1-13.

McCauley, R. N. (2004). “Philosophical Naturalism and the Cognitive Approach to Ritual,” Thinking through Ritual. K. Schilbrack (ed.). London: Routledge, 148-171.

McCauley, R. N. (2003). “Is Religion a Rube Goldberg Device? Or Oh, What a Difference a Theory Makes!” Essays in Honor of E. Thomas Lawson. B. Wilson and T. Light (eds.). Leiden: Brill, 45-64.

Lawson, E. T. and McCauley, R. N. (2002). “The Cognitive Representation of Religious Ritual Form: A Theory of Participants’ Competence with their Religious Ritual Systems,” Current Approaches to the Cognitive Study of Religion. I. Pyysiainen and V. Anttonen (eds). London: Continuum, 153-176.

McCauley, R. N. and Bechtel, W. (2001). “Explanatory Pluralism and The Heuristic Identity Theory,” Theory and Psychology 11, 738-761.

McCauley, R. N. (2001). “Ritual, Memory, and Emotion: Comparing Two Cognitive Hypotheses,” Religion in Mind: Cognitive Perspectives on Religious Experience. J. Andresen (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 115-140.

McCauley, R. N. (2001). “Explanatory Pluralism and the Coevolution of Theories in Science,” Philosophy and the Neurosciences, W. Bechtel, P. Mandik, J. Mundale, and R. Stufflebeam (eds.), Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 431-456.

reprint of McCauley, R. N. (1996). “Explanatory Pluralism and the Coevolution of Theories             in Science,” The Churchlands and Their Critics. R. N. McCauley (ed.). Oxford: Blackwell             Publishers, 17-47.

McCauley, R. N. (2000). “Overcoming Barriers to a Cognitive Psychology of Religion,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 12, 141-161. (special issue) Perspectives on Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. A. Geertz and R. McCutcheon (eds.). The Hague: Brill.

McCauley, R. N. (2000). “The Naturalness of Religion and the Unnaturalness of Science,” Explanation and Cognition. F. Keil and R. Wilson (eds.). Cambridge: MIT Press, 61-85.

Bechtel, W. and McCauley, R. N. (1999). “Heuristic Identity Theory (or Back to the Future): The Mind-Body Problem Against the Background of Research Strategies in Cognitive Neuroscience,” Proceedings of the Twenty-First Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. M. Hahn and S. C. Stones (eds.). Mahway, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 67-72.

McCauley, R. N. (1999). “Bringing Ritual to Mind,” Ecological Approaches to Cognition: Essays in Honor of Ulric Neisser. E. Winograd, R. Fivush, and W. Hirst (eds.). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 285-312.

McCauley, R. N. (1999). “The Cognitive Foundations of Religion and Science,” Religion im Wandel der Kosmologien. D. Zeller (ed.). Berlin: P. Lang, 55-67.

McCauley, R. N. (1998). “Levels of Explanation and Cognitive Architectures,” Blackwell Companion to Cognitive Science. W. Bechtel and G. Graham (eds.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 611-624

McCauley, R. N. and Lawson, E. T. (1998). “Interactionism and the Non-Obviousness of Scientific Theories,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 10, 61-77.

McCauley, R. N. and Lawson, E. T. (1996). “Who Owns ‘Culture’?” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 8, 171-190.

McCauley, R. N. (1996). “Explanatory Pluralism and the Coevolution of Theories in Science,” The Churchlands and Their Critics. R. N. McCauley (ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 17-47.

Lawson, E. T. and McCauley, R. N. (1993). “Crisis of Conscience, Riddle of Identity: Making Space for a Cognitive Approach to Religious Phenomena,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 61, 201-223.

McCauley, R. N. (1993). “Why the Blind Can’t Lead the Blind: Dennett on the Blind Spot, Blindsight, and Sensory Qualia,” Consciousness and Cognition 2, 155-164.

McCauley, R. N. and Lawson, E. T. (1993). “Connecting the Cognitive and the Cultural: Artificial Minds as Methodological Devices in the Study of the Sociocultural,” Minds: Natural and Artificial. R. Burton (ed.). Albany: State University of New York Press, 121-145.

McCauley, R. N. (1993). “Brainwork: A Review of Paul Churchland’s A Neurocomputational Perspective,” Philosophical Psychology 6, 81-96.

McCauley, R. N. (1993). “Cross-Scientific Study and the Complexity of Psychology,” Annals of Theoretical Psychology—Volume 9. H. V. Rappard and L. P. Mos (eds.). New York: Plenum Press, 413-420.

McCauley, R. N. (1993). “Intertheoretic Relations and the Future of Psychology,” Folk Psychology and the Philosophy of Mind, S. M. Christensen and D. R. Turner (eds.), Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 63-81.

reprint of McCauley, R. N. (1986). “Intertheoretic Relations and the Future of             Psychology,” Philosophy of Science 53, 179-199.

McCauley, R. N. (1992). “Models of Knowing and Their Relations to Our Understanding of Liberal Education,” Metaphilosophy 23, 288-309.

McCauley, R. N. (1989). “Il Ruolo Delle Teorie in una Teoris dei Concetti,” Concetti e Sviluppo Concettuale. G. Pessa (trans.) Rome: Città Nuova Editrice, 402-431.

Italian translation of McCauley, R. N. (1987). “The Role of Theories in a Theory of Concepts,” Concepts and Conceptual Development. U. Neisser (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 288-309.

McCauley, R. N. (1988). “Epistemology in an Age of Cognitive Science,” Philosophical Psychology 1, 143-152.

McCauley, R. N. (1988). “Walking in Our Own Footsteps: Autobiographical Memory and Reconstruction,” Remembering Reconsidered: Ecological and Traditional Approaches to the Study of Memory. U. Neisser and E. Winograd (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 126-144.

McCauley, R. N. (1987). “The Role of Theories in a Theory of Concepts,” Concepts and Conceptual Development. U. Neisser (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 288-309.

McCauley, R. N. (1987). “The Not So Happy Story of the Marriage of Linguistics and Psychology or How Linguistics Has Discouraged Psychology’s Recent Advances,” Synthese 72, 341-353.

McCauley, R. N. (1987). “The Role of Cognitive Explanations in Psychology,” Behaviorism (subsequently titled Behavior and Philosophy) 15, 27-40.

McCauley, R. N. (1986). “Truth, Epistemic Ideals and the Psychology of Categorization,” Philosophy of Science Association—1986, Volume 1, A. Fine and P. Machamer (eds.), East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association, 198-207.

McCauley, R. N. (1986). “Intertheoretic Relations and the Future of Psychology,” Philosophy of Science 53, 179-199.

McCauley, R. N. (1986). “Problem Solving in Science and the Competence Approach to Theorizing in Linguistics,” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 16, 299-312.

McCauley, R. N. (1985). “The Moral Status of Apartheid: Can the Presence of Foreign Corporations in South Africa Be Morally Justified?” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 15, 565-579.

McCauley, R. N. (1984). “Knowledge, Minds, and Facts,” Rejuvenating Introductory Courses, K. Spear (ed.), San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 53-62.

McCauley, R. N. and Lawson, E. T. (1984). “Functionalism Reconsidered,” History of Religions 23, 372-381.

McCauley, R. N. (1982). “The Business of the University,” Liberal Education 68, 27-34.

McCauley, R. N. (1981). “Hypothetical Identities and Ontological Economizing: Comments on Causey’s Program for the Unity of Science,” Philosophy of Science 48, 218-227.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

McCauley, R. N. (2014). “Scientific Fractionation Breaking the Ties that Bind Us,” Current Anthropology 55, 686-87.

McCauley, R. N. (2012). “Functions, Mechanism, and Contexts: Comments on “Cognitive Resource Depletion in Religious Interactions,” Religion, Brain & Behavior 3, 68-71.

McCauley, R. N. (2012). “A Cognitive Science of Religion Will Be Difficult, Expensive, Complicated, Radically Counter-Intuitive, and Possible: A Response to Martin and Wiebe.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 80, 605-610.

McCauley, R. N. (2012). “Natural Religion, Unnatural Science,” New Scientist (March 17, 2012) 213, 44-46

McCauley, R. N. (2009). “The Impact of Successful Scientific Theorizing on Conceptualizing Religion,” Religion 39, 200-202.

Cohen, E., Lanman, J., McCauley, R. N., and Whitehouse, H. (2008). “Common Criticisms of the Cognitive Science of Religion – Answered,” Bulletin of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion 37, 1-4.

McCauley, R. N. (2006). “How Far Will an Account of Ritualized Behavior Go in Explaining Cultural Rituals?” Behavioural and Brain Sciences 29, 623-624.

McCauley, R. N. (2002). “Theoretical Arguments are not Icons,” Ritual Studies 16, 23-29.

McCauley, R. N. (2000). Review of On the Contrary: Critical Essays, 1987-1997, P. M. Churchland and P.S. Churchland, Journal of Philosophy 97, 297-301.

McCauley, R. N. (1999). “Evolutionary Psychology,” The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (second edition). R. Audi (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 295-296.

McCauley, R. N. (1999). “Reductionism,” The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences. R. Wilson and F. Keil (eds.). Cambridge: The MIT Press, 712-714.

McCauley, R. N. (1998). “Comparing the Cognitive Foundations of Religion and Science,” Emory Cognition Project Report #37.

McCauley, R. N. (1998). Review of The Engine of Reason, The Seat of the Soul, P. Churchland, The Philosophical Quarterly 48, 542-545.

McCauley, R. N. (1996). Review of Psychology and Nihilism, F. Evans, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 64, 910-912.

Lawson, E. T. and McCauley, R. N. (1995). “Caring for the Details: A Humane Reply to Buckley and Buckley,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 63, 353-357.

McCauley, R. N. (1995). Review of Associative Engines: Connectionism, Concepts, and Representational Change, A. Clark, The Philosophical Quarterly 45, 241-243.

McCauley, R. N. (1994). Review of Consciousness Reconsidered, O. Flanagan, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 30, 61-65.

McCauley, R. N. (1992). “Defending Normative Naturalism: A Reply to Ellen Klein,” Philosophical Psychology 5, 299-305.

McCauley, R. N. (1990). “Sociology of Knowledge as Epistemology,” a review of Social Epistemology, S. Fuller, Contemporary Psychology 35, 569-571.

McCauley, R. N. (1989). “Acceptability, Analogy, and the Acceptability of Analogies,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12, 482-483.

McCauley, R. N. (1989). “Psychology in Mid-Stream: A Reply to Bechtel,” Behaviorism (subsequently titled Behavior and Philosophy) 17, 75-77.

McCauley, R. N. (1987). “Psychology and Epistemology,” a review of Epistemology and Cognition, A. Goldman, Contemporary Psychology 32, 522-524.

McCauley, R. N. (1987). “Reply to Robinson,” Contemporary Psychology 32, 393.

McCauley, R. N. (1986). “Searching for a Fully Scientific Psychology,” a review of Annals of Theoretical Psychology, Volume 3, K. B. Madsen and Leendert P. Mos (eds.), Contemporary Psychology 31, 844-845.

McCauley, R. N. (1986). Review of Science as Cognitive Process, R. Rubinstein, C. Laughlin, and J. McManus, Isis 77, 112-113.

McCauley, R. N. (1986). “The Concept of Mind Matters,” a review of Philosophy of Psychology, D. Robinson, Contemporary Psychology 31, 428-429.

McCauley, R. N. (1985). “Concepts, Theories, and Truth,” Emory Cognition Project Report #8.

McCauley, R. N. (1984). “Inference and Temporal Encoding in Episodic Memory,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7, 246-247.

McCauley, R. N. (1983). “Critical Misunderstanding and the Misunderstanding of ‘Criticism,'” Liberal Education 69, 87-89.

McCauley, R. N. (1982). “The Science of Science,” a review of On Scientific Thinking, R. Tweney, M. Doherty, C. Mynatt (eds.), Contemporary Psychology 27, 721-722.

McCauley, R. N. (1982). “Living and the Liberal Arts,” The Courier 3, 14.

McCauley, R. N. (1980). “Reflections on Davidson’s Anomalous Monism,” Proceedings of the Heraclitean Society 5, 12-20.

McCauley, R. N. (1978). Review of Cultural Thematics, T. Seung, Comparative Drama 12, 170-172.