IMAGINATION, RELIGION, AND MORALITY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH By BERNICE SERFONTEIN Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PHILOSOPHIAE DOCTOR in the FACULTY OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGION at the UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA Department: Dogmatics and Christian Ethics Supervisor: Prof. Dr D.P. Veldsman September 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................................ v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..........................................................................................vi ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... vii KEYWORDS ............................................................................................................ viii CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................... 1 IMAGINATION, RELIGION, AND MORALITY ............................................................ 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT.................................................................................. 5 1.3 LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH GAP .............................................. 6 1.4 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 16 1.5 RESEARCH PROGRAMME ........................................................................... 19 CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................. 20 THE EVOLUTION OF THE DISTINCTIVE HUMAN IMAGINATION ........................ 20 2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 20 2.1.1 Niche Construction ................................................................................... 25 2.1.2 Short evolutionary history of becoming human ........................................ 28 2.2 STEVEN MITHEN: SEVEN STEPS IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN IMAGINATION ...................................................................................................... 36 2.2.1 Step 1: A theory of mind, 6.0-1.8 million years ago .................................. 39 2.2.2 Step 2: The evolution of human life history, 2.0-0.1 million years ago ..... 41 3.2.3 Step 3: Domain-Specific intelligences, 2.1-0.25 million years ago ........... 43 3.2.4 Step 4: The origin of language and music, 250 000-100 000 years ago .. 47 3.2.5 Step 5: Cognitive fluidity, 250 000-100 000 years ago ............................. 50 3.2.6 Step 6: The extended mind, 250 000 years ago to the present ................ 51 3.2.7 Step 7: Sedentary farming lifestyles, 11 600 years ago to the present .... 52 2.3 AGUSTIN FUENTES: THE EMERGENCE OF IMAGINATION AND THE HUMAN NICHE .................................................................................................... 54 2.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 66 CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................................................. 69 SYMBOLIC THOUGHT AND RELIGIOUS AWARENESS ....................................... 69 3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 69 3.2 DEFINING “RELIGIOUS”? .............................................................................. 73 3.2.1 Johnathan Z. Smith .................................................................................. 75 3.2.2 Candace Alcorta and Richard Sosis ......................................................... 80 3.3 EVIDENCE OF SYMBOLIC BEHAVIOUR AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE . 83 3.4 THE HUMAN IMAGINATION, SYMBOLIC REALITY, AND NICHE CONSTRUCTION ................................................................................................. 88 3.5 THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION ................................................................... 93 3.6 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 100 CHAPTER 4 ........................................................................................................... 104 ii THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY ................................................................................. 104 4.1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 104 4.2 FRANS DE WAAL ........................................................................................ 106 4.2.1 Empathy ................................................................................................. 112 Emotional Contagion ................................................................................... 114 Sympathy and Personal Distress ................................................................. 115 De Waal’s Russian Doll Model of Empathy ................................................. 117 4.2.2 “Is” and “Ought” ...................................................................................... 118 Social Hierarchy and Impulse Control ......................................................... 120 Helping or (not) Hurting ............................................................................... 121 One-on-One Normativity .............................................................................. 123 Community Concern .................................................................................... 125 4.2.3 De Waal’s Tower of Morality .................................................................. 128 Three Levels of Morality .............................................................................. 130 Level One: Building Blocks .......................................................................... 131 Level Two: Social Pressure ......................................................................... 131 Level Three: Judgement and Reasoning ..................................................... 132 4.2.4 Bottom-up Morality ................................................................................. 133 4.2.5 Summary and Critique............................................................................ 134 4.3 MICHAEL TOMASELLO ............................................................................... 140 4.3.1 Interdependence hypothesis .................................................................. 141 iii 4.3.2 Joint Intentionality .................................................................................. 145 4.3.3 Collective intentionality ........................................................................... 148 4.3.4 Summary ................................................................................................ 151 4.4 CELIA DEANE-DRUMMOND ....................................................................... 154 4.4.1 Inter-species in evolution and inter-species morality .............................. 158 4.4.2 Notes on De Waal’s Tower of Morality ................................................... 161 4.4.3 Concluding remarks ............................................................................... 165 4.5 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 167 CHAPTER 5 ........................................................................................................... 171 TOWARD AN INTERDISCIPLINARY UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGIN OF MORALITY AND RELIGION .................................................................................. 171 5.1 A POSSIBLE PHILOSOPHICAL BRIDGE THEORY INTEGRATING EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVES AND INTERDISCIPLINARY THEOLOGY . 185 5.2 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 198 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................... 205 iv DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA Full names of student: Bernice Serfontein Student number: 11045427 Topic of work: Imagination, Religion, and Morality: An Interdisciplinary Approach Declaration 1. I understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the University’s policy in this regard. 2. I declare that this thesis is my own original work. Where other people’s work has been used either from a printed source, Internet or any other source), this has been properly acknowledged and referenced in accordance with departmental requirements. 3. I have not used work previously produced by another student or any other person to hand in as my own. 4. I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing it off as his or her own work. SIGNATURE ............................................. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is my privilege to thank a few people and institutions for their valuable contribution and support during the two years spent working on this thesis. My gratitude goes to the University of Pretoria and especially the Faculty of Theology and Religion for their institutional support throughout this study. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to Professor Daniël P. Veldsman, whose input into my work has been invaluable. His patience, humanity, wisdom and extensive knowledge and interest in this field, particularly interdisciplinary theology, were further sources of inspiration during this study. It was an