Yair Lior

Boston University, Religion, Faculty Member

CMAC, Systems Theory of Religion and Culture, Faculty Member

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Applications of cultural evolution, systems theory, complexity science, and information theory to the study of culture and religion. Theory and method in comparative religion. China: Chinese philosophy, Song dynasty intellectual history (Tang-Song Transition), and Neo-Confucianism. Judaism: Kabbalah, Maimonidean controversies, medieval jewish intellectual history.

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Papers by Yair Lior

Major Evolutionary Transitions in Culture and Cognition: The Anthropocene and Techno-Biotic Cognition

Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 2025

We review evidence that humans are undergoing a major evolutionary transition (MET). We show that... more We review evidence that humans are undergoing a major evolutionary transition (MET). We show that the modern period satisfies diagnostic criterion for a MET and then describe the major changes in ideological and cognitive forms that culturally facilitate the current transition. The current MET appears to be moving toward a panhuman, planet-wide superorganism characterized by new forms of social cooperation and a new form of cognition we designate as techno-biotic cognition. We show how forms of 21st century technology such as artificial intelligence are shaping and being shaped by the MET and are in turn influencing human evolution and culture. We suggest that accelerated development in areas of the brain unique to humans might be coevolving with new forms of human cognition that characterize the current MET. Public Significance Statement By discussing the impact of technological advancements in the 21st century, particularly artificial intelligence, on human cognition and behavior, this article holds significant public relevance. It highlights salient social effects of an emerging human-tech superorganism on individual human beings and human groups and institutions and provides a new perspective on a possible future trajectory of brain evolution in the digital age.

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Synthetic Approaches

Routledge eBooks, Sep 28, 2022

Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology

Routledge eBooks, Sep 28, 2022

Kundt 2015). Some have even suggested that since the term "social Darwinism," insinuates that Dar... more Kundt 2015). Some have even suggested that since the term "social Darwinism," insinuates that Darwinism predated evolutionary approaches in the social sciences, it would be more accurate to refer to Darwinian theory as "Biological Spencerism" (Turner 1985). Regardless of questions of primacy, Darwin eventually provided a compelling theory that could be readily applied to religion and culture. Indeed, cultural evolutionists have pointed out that all the basic ingredients of Darwinian natural selection-variability, inheritance, and Evolutionary Psychology Evolutionary psychology finds its roots in the "cognitive revolution" of the 1950s. It sets to fuse cognitive science with the theory of natural selection in an attempt to construct a naturalistic explanation of human beliefs and culture. More generally, it sought to create a vertical

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MAJOR TRANSITIONS IN CULTURAL EVOLUTION: A Dynamic Systems Approach

The Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Approaches to Religion , 2023

This chapter explores universal evolution as it is applied to cultural evolution, focusing on maj... more This chapter explores universal evolution as it is applied to cultural evolution, focusing on major transitions in religious culture from the early Paleolithic to the rise of world (axial) religions. The perspective I take is an evolutionary-systems approach, which integrates insights from biological and cultural evolutionary theory, systems theory, information theory, the cognitive science of religion, religious studies, and cultural anthropology. The chapter argues for the necessity of a holistic evolutionary theory that integrates physical, biological, and cultural evolution.

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Big Gods: The Cultural Evolution of Social Complexity and Prosocial Religions

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Kabbalah and Neo-Confucianism: a comparative morphology of medieval movements

This study is a comparative analysis of the rise of Neo-Confucianism in China during the eleventh... more This study is a comparative analysis of the rise of Neo-Confucianism in China during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the emergence of the school of Kabbalah in France and Spain during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries CE. This comparison is grounded in the observation that the two schools, in spite of their obvious differences, were an outcome of separate reactions to the rising popularity of foreign paradigms. I draw a distinction between synthetic and analytic modes of operation, arguing they represent contrasting cultural paradigms characterized by divergent cognitive, social, linguistic, and cultural temperaments. I argue that both the classical Chinese and Jewish worldviews conformed to the basic characteristics of the synthetic modality, and that they entered a period of acute crisis as a result of the rising popularity of the analytic Buddhist and Greek philosophical traditions respectively. As I define it, the synthetic worldview is characterized by the affirmation of the body and this-worldly life, an emphasis on ritual and community, cultural particularism, and associative, non-analytical modes of thought. The contrasting analytic worldview stresses individualism, de-contextualization of data, other-worldliness, contemplative spirituality, and universalism. xii Confucianism helped me better appreciate the differences between the Indian and Chinese worldviews. Echoing my suspicion towards the notion of "Western traditions" and "Monotheism" the Indian/Chinese tension led me towards a similar uneasiness with the somewhat simplistic and sweeping notion of Eastern traditions. Once I felt that both the Western and Eastern categories were destabilized for related reasons, I got the first inkling of a potential solution to my comparative conundrum. The debate surrounding culture and religion needs a theoretical framework that can help us look beyond East/West distinctions by introducing new cultural categories. What I will refer to as synthetic and analytic traditions enables us to do just that: to appreciate Judaism in relation to China while contrasting both traditions with the common analytic ethos of Christianity and Buddhism. I will keep the methodological details of this solution to the next chapter, suffice it to say that the more I looked the more I was convinced that behind the external diversity of China and Judaism lurked a common infrastructure, or cultural DNA. Being aware of the "perennial" dangers of such a claim, my doctoral research has been dedicated to articulating my argument in a way that avoids simplicity. Today, I am convinced that the methodological framework I am offering is successful in unveiling some of the mystery that engulfed my early reflections on China and Judaism. The next step is to convince my readers. My search led to another fortunate result. As I became more involved in theoretical questions, I came to believe that the methodology I was constructing was valuable in its own right. In other words, it was not only instrumental for my specific project but could xiii function as a theoretical framework for a wide range of comparative phenomena. I must confess that in the process of writing this dissertation I wasn't always sure whether I was primarily comparing Kabbalah and Neo-Confucianism or whether I was using the comparison of these schools as a showcase for the instrumentality of my comparative methodology. I would like to believe that the two need not be mutually exclusive. xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: METHODOLOGY CHAPTER 4: TRADITIONS IN MORPHOGENESIS-NEO-CONFUCIANISM 4. China: The Decline of the Classical Paradigm 4.1 The Tang-Song Transition 4.1.1 The Rise of New Elites 4.1.2 The Rise of Buddhism and the Decline of Confucianism 4.1.3 The Ascendency and Consolidation of the Chan Buddhism 4.1.4 The Proliferation of Schools 4.1.5 The Decline of the Five Classics 4.2 The Three-Phase Progression of Neo-Confucianism 4.3 The Neo-Confucian School of Principle (lixue) 4.3.1 The Four Books 4.4 The Democratization of Knowledge 4.5 The Cognitive Level 4.5.1 Atomization of Data 4.5.2 De-Contextualization 4.5.3 Systemization 4.5.4 Conclusion 4.6 The Social Level 4.6.1 Growing Individualistic Trends 4.6.2 Individualism in the Service of Communalism 4.7 The Cultural Level xix 4.7.1 Contemplation vs. Ritual 4.7.2 Contemplation in the Service of Social Engagement and Ritual 4.7.3 Meditation on the Concrete 4.7.4 Ritual in Neo-Confucian Philosophy 4.7.5 Other-Worldliness vs. This-Worldliness 4.7.6 Qualified Transcendence 4.7.7 Universalism vs. Particularism 4.7.8 Neo-Confucian Particularism 4.8 Politics and Cultural Transformation (教化) CHAPTER 5: CONCLUDING REMARKS 5. Methodological Remarks 5.1 Cultures in Morphogenesis 5.1.1 Analytic Cultures and Power 5.1.2 Morphogenesis and the Proliferation of Ideologies 5.1.3 Cultural Systems and Information 5.1.4 Internalizing, Processing, and Externalizing Information 5.1.5 From Appropriation to Subordination 5.2 Self-Organization of Complex Adaptive Systems 5.3 Attractor States and Synergies between Systems and SubSystems 5.3.1 The Symbiotic Nature of Cultural Systems 5.4 Cultures in Homeostasis 5.5 The Pervasiveness and Complex Nature of Binaries xx 5.6. Conclusion 572 5.6.1 Further Methodological Application 5.7 Contributions of this Study 575 5.7.1 A Systematic Distinction between Synthetic and Analytic Modes of Operation 575 5.7.2 Challenging Traditional Taxonomies in the Study of Religion 577 5.7.3 Systems Theory in the Humanities 579 5.7.4 The Integration of Diachronic and Synchronic Approaches to the Study of Religion 582 5.7.5 A New Understanding of the Rise of Neo-Confucianism and Kabbalah 583

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A Comparative-Informational Approach to the Study of Religion: The Chinese and Jewish Cases

Journal of the American Academy of Religion , 2019

This article offers a "comparative-informational" approach to the study of religion. It demonstra... more This article offers a "comparative-informational" approach to the study of religion. It demonstrates how historical transformations in religious traditions are frequently intertwined with shifts towards new strategies of managing information, or "informational orders. " The article shows how two unrelated schools of thought-Neo-Confucianism and Kabbalah-were responsible for the construction and institutionalization of new information strategies in their respective traditions. The innovative discourses Neo-Confucians and Kabbalists established were characterized by "analytic" qualities that were co-opted from competing foreign traditions. As part of the Confucian and Jewish reactions to Buddhism and Greek philosophy, respectively, Neo-Confucian and medieval Jewish mystical discourses underwent considerable rationalization. Moreover, from an informational perspective, a major factor in the dramatic cultural transitions that Neo-Confucians and Kabbalists facilitated was the ability of these schools to restructure the canonical literature of their respective traditions. Such rare modificiations in a tradition's "informa-tional core" are here interpreted as adaptive strategies that drive cultural systems towards greater complexity and long-term resilience. BETWEEN the tenth and thirteenth centuries, the Chinese and Jewish traditions entered periods of acute ideological crisis. Though occurring

format_quoteThe rise of Neo-Confucianism and Kabbalah initiated new authoritative information bodies, canonized alongside existing texts, reflecting a profound cultural transformation.format_quote

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A Matter of Context: Comparing Kabbalah and Neo-Confucianism

Brill

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Confucian Insights on Teaching and Learning

12th-13th century Neo-Confucian education as a resource for establishing a contemporary Confucian... more

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Books by Yair Lior

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF EVOLUTIONARY APPROACHES TO RELIGION

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF EVOLUTIONARY APPROACHES TO RELIGION, 2022

The past two decades have seen a growing interest in evolutionary and scientific approaches to re... more The past two decades have seen a growing interest in evolutionary and scientific approaches to religion. The Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Approaches to Religion is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems and debates in this exciting and emerging field. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors the handbook pulls together scholarship in the following areas: • evolutionary psychology and the cognitive science of religion (CSR) • cultural evolution • the complementarity of evolutionary psychology, cognitive science and cultural evolution. Within these sections central issues, debates and problems are examined, including: Cliodynamics, cultural group selection, costly signaling, dual inheritance theory, literacy, transmitting narratives, prosociality, supernatural punishment, cognition and ritual, meme theory, fusion theory, sexual selection, agency detection, evoked culture, social brain hypothesis, theory of mind, developmental psychology, emergence theory, social learning, cultural cybernetics, cultural epidemiology, evolutionary and cultural psychology, memetics, by-product and adaptationist theories of religion, systems and information theory, and computer modeling. This Handbook is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies and anthropology. It will also be very useful to those in related fields, such as psychology, sociology of religion, cognitive biology, and evolutionary biology.

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Yair Lior

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