In this lecture, William (Lee) W. McCorkle Jr. will trace the origins for the Cognitive Science of Religion through the innovation of theories, to the development of large research centers around the world, culminating in arguably the first faculty position named for the discipline at large. In preparation for the one hundredth anniversary of Durkheim’s “Elementary Forms,” and the conference in Aarhus to celebrate it, he will argue that the Cognitive Science of Religion is now an elaborate effort to connect evolution and culture via a Darwinian methodology for ‘social intelligence.’ By presenting emerging experimental anthropology being conducted at the Laboratory for the Experimental Research on Religion (LEVYNA) at Masaryk University in Brno, he will advance CSR as complimentary to classical theories of religion, and not as many have proffered as antagonistic.

William (Lee) W. McCorkle Jr., Ph.D. is Director of Experimental Research at LEVYNA (Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion and Ritual) and Associate Professor and Research Specialist at the Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

The lecture is organised by RCC, the Religion, Cognition and Culture Research Unit at Aarhus University.