Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T15:05:13.833Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dying for your group or for your faith? On the power of belief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Maarten Boudry
Maarten Boudry*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy & Moral Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium. maartenboudry@gmail.comwww.maartenboudry.be
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Whitehouse's theory offers one plausible pathway toward extreme self-sacrifice, but it fails to explain sacrificial acts that are inspired by heartfelt ideological beliefs, including jihadi terrorism and mass suicide in cults. If he wants to offer a “single overarching theory” of self-sacrifice, he will need to take seriously the power of belief.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e195
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barlow, H. D. (2015) Dead for good: Martyrdom and the rise of the suicide bomber. Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Boudry, M. & Coyne, J. (2016a) Disbelief in belief: On the cognitive status of supernatural beliefs. Philosophical Psychology 29(4):601–15. doi: 10.1080/09515089.2015.1110852.Google Scholar
Boudry, M. & Coyne, J. (2016b) Fakers, fanatics, and false dilemmas: Reply to Van Leeuwen. Philosophical Psychology 29(4):622–27. doi: 10.1080/09515089.2016.1146244.Google Scholar
Cook, D. (2005) Understanding jihad. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Greenberg, K. J. (2005) Al Qaeda now: Understanding today's terrorists: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hafez, M. M. (2007) Martyrdom mythology in Iraq: How jihadists frame suicide terrorism in videos and biographies. Terrorism and Political Violence 19(1):95–115.Google Scholar
Juergensmeyer, M. (2005) Terror in the mind of God: The global rise of religious violence: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Kruglanski, A. W., Chen, X., Dechesne, M., Fishman, S. & Orehek, E. (2009) Fully committed: Suicide bombers' motivation and the quest for personal significance. Political Psychology 30(3):331–57.Google Scholar
Kumar, U. (2017) Handbook of suicidal behaviour: Springer Singapore.Google Scholar
Lewis, B. (2004) The crisis of Islam: Holy war and unholy terror. Random House.Google Scholar
Oliver, A. M. & Steinberg, P. F. (2006) The Road to martyrs' square: A journey into the world of the suicide bomber. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sperry, P. (2005, July 28) When the profile fits the crime. The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/opinion/when-the-profile-fits-the-crime.html.Google Scholar
Stern, J. & Berger, J. M. (2015) ISIS: The state of terror: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, N. (2014) Religious credence is not factual belief. Cognition 133(3):698–715.Google Scholar
Wright, L. (2006) The looming tower. Knopf Doubleday.Google Scholar