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

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

Overview

The study of early cognitive development has emphasized the way in which young children act like scientists, testing and revising theories about the physical, biological, and psychological world. Evidence of this early understanding of the natural order has led researchers to reconsider children's thinking about magical, religious, or otherwise supernatural orders. The present volume offers reviews of new lines of research on children's thinking that stretch beyond the ordinary boundaries of reality. More than being "little scientists," children are here considered as "little magicians," "little metaphysicians," "little theologians" and "little story tellers" or "dramatists," imagining other-worldly possibilities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521593229
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/29/2000
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.14(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. The makings of the magical mind: the nature of function of sympathetic magical thinking Carol Nemeroff and Paul Rozin; 2. Phenomenalistic perception and rational understanding in the mind of an individual: a fight for dominance Eugene Subbotsky; 3. Metamorphosis and magic: the development of children's thinking about possible events and plausible mechanisms Karl S. Rosengren and Anne K. Hickling; 4. The development of beliefs about metaphysical causality in imagination, magic and religion Jacqui Woolley; 5. Intuitive ontology and cultural input in the acquisition of religious concepts Pascal Boyer and Sheila Walker; 6. On not falling down to earth: children's metaphysical questions Paul L. Harris; 7. Putting different things together: the development of metaphysical thinking Carl N. Johnson; 8. Versions of personal story telling: versions of experience: genres as tools for creating alternate realities Peggy J. Miller, Julia Hengst, Kristin Alexander and Linda L. Sperry; 9. The influence of culture on fantasy play: the case of Mennonite children Marjorie Taylor and Stephanie M. Carlson; 10. Religion, culture, and beliefs about reality in moral reasoning Elliot Turiel and Kristin Neff; 11. Beyond scopes: why creationism is here to stay E. Margaret Evans; 12. Knowledge change in response to date in science, religion, and magic Clark A. Chinn and William F. Brewer; 13. Theology and physical science: a story of developmental influence at the boundaries David E. Schrader.

Editorial Reviews

"The real contribution of the volume is introducing the notion that children's ideas about fantasy, magic, religion, and science are interrelated in important ways." APA Review of Books

"...this is an important book..." Canadian Child Psychiatry Review

"This is good science. And it is interesting." Imagination, Cognition and Personality

From the Publisher