Q&A: Generative Anthropology
Generative Anthropology
Question
Hello, is the Rabbi familiar with Eric Gans's method of generative anthropology? http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/gaintro/
And more generally, what does the Rabbi think about anthropological and sociological approaches that try to explain religious laws (and the concept of "God") as emerging out of social processes? Sometimes the explanations sound quite plausible. What are the main arguments against this? Has the Rabbi written about this somewhere?
Answer
I'm not familiar with it, but I've often heard explanations like these for the development of religion, as well as morality and anything else that exists. My general view (again, I'm not familiar with this specifically) is that this is begging the question. People feel that there is nothing real in all this, and so they go looking for an evolutionary explanation. Such an explanation can always be found (since evolution is a theory that cannot be falsified. Or at least there is no phenomenon that cannot be explained in evolutionary terms).
By the same logic, there is no morality and nothing at all except molecules.