Science and religion: searching psychophysiological foundations of religious experience
The SPbU Representative Office in Spain invites you to the online lecture "Science and religion: searching psychophysiological foundations of religious experience". The lecture will be delivered by Daria Podvigina, Candidate of Psychology.
Science and religion — are these concepts compatible? Why among all human activities which can be compared with religion, we specifically interested in relations between science and religion? Is mind omnipotent and can it be complete without faith?
Despite the fact that religious experience has a subjective mystical character, that doesn’t mean that it cannot be studied with the help of natural sciences. If we assume that certain neurophysiological processes and brain states underlie this experience, then we have the opportunity to study this kind of mental state using psychophysiological methods.
Back at the beginning of the ХХ century, the American philosopher and psychologist William James in his book "The Varieties of Religious Experience," examined the psychological nature and scientific methodology which can be used to study it. Since then, representatives of various scientific fields, such as theologians, psychologists, as well as neuroscientists have repeatedly addressed these issues. During our lecture we will get acquainted with the most interesting results of research in this area.
Lecturer
Daria Podvigina graduated from the Faculty of Psychology at St Petersburg University in 2002 and started working at Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the same year. Since 2015, she has been Senior Research Associate at the Laboratory for Cognitive Studies at St Petersburg University (since 2020 — the Institute for Cognitive Studies at the University). Her main research interests are neurophysiological and psychophysiological mechanisms of visual perception and recognition of complex images. She is the author of more than 40 scholarly papers. In addition to her research activities, she teaches a number of courses at the Institute for Cognitive Studies and at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St Petersburg University (lecture courses "Introduction to Life Sciences", "Human: Evolution, Culture, Behaviour", and others).
The lecture will be held as part of the events to mark the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg University, the oldest university in Russia. The meeting will be held online in Russian with simultaneous interpreting into Spanish.