Imagining the Impossible: Magical, Scientific, and Religious Thinking in Children

by Edited by Karl S. Rosengren , Carl N. Johnson , Paul L. Harris

• ISBN13: 9780521593229
• ISBN10: 0521593220
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This volume is about the development of human thinking that stretches beyond the ordinary boundaries of reality. Various new research initiatives have emerged in the past decade exploring such matters as children's thinking about imaginary beings, magic and the supernatural. The purpose of this book is to capture something of the larger spirit of these efforts. In many ways, this new work offers a counterpoint to research on the development of children's domain-specific knowledge about the ordinary nature of things that has suggested that children become increasingly scientific and rational over the course of development. In acquiring an intuitive understanding of the physical, biological or psychological domains, even young children recognize that there are constraints on what can happen. However, once such constraints are acknowledged, children are in a position to think about the violation of those very same constraints - to contemplate the impossible.

Table of Contents

Contributors	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Preface	xiii
The Makings of the Magical Mind: The Nature and Function of Sympathetic Magical Thinking	1	(34)
Carol Nemeroff
Paul Rozin
Phenomenalistic Perception and Rational Understanding in the Mind of an Individual: A Fight for Dominance	35	(40)
Eugene Subbotsky
Metamorphosis and Magic: The Development of Children's Thinking About Possible Events and Plausible Mechanisms	75	(24)
Karl S. Rosengren
Anne K. Hickling
The Development of Beliefs About Direct Mental-Physical Causality in Imagination, Magic, and Religion	99	(31)
Jacqueline D. Woolley
Intuitive Ontology and Cultural Input in the Acquisition of Religious Concepts	130	(27)
Pascal Boyer
Sheila Walker
On Not Falling Down to Earth: Children's Metaphysical Questions	157	(22)
Paul L. Harris
Putting Different Things Together: The Development of Metaphysical Thinking	179	(33)
Carl N. Johnson
Versions of Personal Storytelling/Versions of Experience: Genres as Tools for Creating Alternate Realities	212	(35)
Peggy J. Miller
Julie Hengst
Kristin Alexander
Linda L. Sperry
The Influence of Religious Beliefs on Parental Attitudes About Children's Fantasy Behavior	247	(22)
Marjorie Taylor
Stephanie M. Carlson
Religion, Culture, and Beliefs About Reality in Moral Reasoning	269	(36)
Elliot Turiel
Kristin Neff
Beyond Scopes: Why Creationism Is Here to Stay	305	(29)
E. Margaret Evans
Knowledge Change in Response to Data in Science, Religion, and Magic	334	(38)
Clark A. Chinn
William F. Brewer
Theology and Physical Science: A Story of Developmental Influence at the Boundaries	372	(33)
David E. Schrader
Index	405