Spandrel or Fitrah? An Essay on the Relationship between Cognitive Science of Religion and Fitrah

Professorial Dissertation from the year 2023 in the subject Philosophy - Theoretical (Realisation, Science, Logic, Language), grade: 1,0, Selçuk University (Faculty of Islamic Studies), course: philosophy and religious studies, language: English, abstract: This paper analyzes the two concepts of "spandrel" and "fitrah" in the context of the Cognitive Science of Religion and, opposed to that, evolutionary thinking. Despite that the two concepts in this study's title seem to have the same meaning, they are understood differently due to differences in perspective. Both concepts acknowledge that human beings have certain innate faculties and claim that these faculties predispose them to believe and be moral. Spandrel argues that these innate faculties are a result of adaptations that enable us to survive in the evolutionary process, while "fitrah" asserts that these faculties are given by God.

In the study, first, the experimental studies proposed by the proponents of the idea of spandrel and the general ideas of the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) are given. Then, it has been established, through experimental tests, that these faculties, proposed by this theory, have similar aspects with the "Commonsense Principles" put forward by Thomas Reid, and his epistemological views have been conveyed. According to him, we should rely on the information provided by these faculties and accept that they are essential for reasoning. After these determinations were made, the study argued that the concept of "fitrah" aligns with the idea of the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) and Thomas Reid's views.