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Tobias Tanton

2 papers in the library · 3 citations · publishing 2023-2025

Papers

Extending the Transhuman Person: Religious Practices as Cognitive Technological Enhancements

Religions March 26, 2025 Tobias Tanton 3 citations

Transhumanism typically assumes that mental capacities are brain-bound and that enhancement requires modifying the organism. 4E cognition challenges this by showing how cognitive processes recruit environmental resources. Andy Clark argues that cognitive enhancement occurs through tools and niches that enable brain–body–world coalitions to perform more efficient functions, making humans 'natural-born cyborgs.' This article extends that analysis to religion, arguing that religious practices function as cognitive technologies that count as enhancements. These insights reframe the dialogue between Christian theology and transhumanism: enhancements belong to a long history of self-modification, humans are intrinsically technological, and theologians are already in the enhancement game while transhumanists should consider religious practices.

DOI: 10.3390/rel16030272 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab) Embodied cognition 4e cognition Extended mind Andy clark +1

Embodied Cognition in Ecclesial Practices

Corporeal Theology January 5, 2023 Tobias Tanton

Embodied religious practices and material culture—such as bodily postures, ritual objects, pilgrimage, and sensory stimuli—serve as cognitive scaffolding that supports memory, emotion, attention, judgment, and conceptualization. Drawing on empirical findings from embodied cognition research, the chapter applies these insights to Christian Eucharistic practices and other examples. While caution is warranted due to methodological issues in experimental psychology, including replication problems and small or unrepresentative samples, the evidence suggests these mechanisms are not limited to elaborate liturgical traditions; ethnographic accounts indicate they also operate in non-liturgical settings.

DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192884589.003.0007 (opens in new tab)