The Economics, Science and Religion Project aims to develop an anthropologically sophisticated theoretical account of the relationship between religion and science in the Euro-American, post-Enlightenment context in conversation with historical and philosophical analyses of the academic study of economics. To this end, the project explores contemporary debates among historians and philosophers of economics over whether the construction of economic theories is most properly regarded as a scientific or a religious enterprise. The aim of the project is not to resolve these debates but to leverage them for the sake of constructing a theoretical account of the relationship between science and religion that is attuned to the intertwined religious and scientific dimensions of human inquiry in an era when economic theorizing plays a large role in shaping human interactions, all the way from local patterns of social organization to the global dynamics of national and international politics.Economics, Science and Religion Project: Introduction
Existing accounts of the religion-and-science relationship—most notably the typology developed by Ian Barbour in the 1980s—tend to construe “religion” and “science” as sharply separated realms battling for cultural supremacy, working for détente, or perhaps striving for reconciliation. Such accounts take for granted and reinforce the culturally dualistic view that "religion" is one thing and "science" another. The basic and contrary premise of the present project is that what can broadly be called the "religious impulse" and the "scientific impulse" are two intertwined and interdependent dimensions of human inquiry.
The first major task of the project is to argue that nowhere is this intertwining and interdependence more evident and usefully examined than in the practice of economics as an academic discipline. In what ways ought the theories put forward by economists be regarded as “scientific”? And to what degree do these theories depend upon ideas about the nature of time, human existence, and the material world that are properly seen as religious or even theological in nature?
The project's second major task is to leverage its investigation of the practices of economics for the sake of developing a nondualistic account of the human person as simultaneously homo scientificus and homo religiosus. This involves undertaking a corresponding reconceptualization of the relationship between science and religion in the Euro-American, post-Enlightenment context.
The Economics, Science and Religion Project was initiated by 2013-2014 Institute Research Associate Dr. Kirk Wegter-McNelly. More information about Kirk is available here.
