[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-238827-105":59,"doc-detail-238827-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","spirituality-and-intellectual-honesty-an-essay","Spirituality and Intellectual Honesty - An Essay","","The essay examines whether a “secularized spirituality” is possible in a period of historical transition that reshapes humanity’s self-image. It frames climate change as a first truly global crisis that exposes collective cognitive limits and self-deception. In parallel, it addresses the “naturalistic turn” in philosophy and science, which recasts mind and mental abilities as biologically grounded properties. The work asks how intellectual honesty can be reconciled with spiritual attitudes on both collective and individual levels.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":45,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/spirituality-and-intellectual-honesty-an-essay/238827/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/spirituality-and-intellectual-honesty-an-essay/238827.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Dipper","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-17","2026-09-11",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":34},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What central question does the essay raise at the beginning?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Whether a “secularized spirituality” is possible (or even conceivable), and whether a modern spiritual self-conception can match historical changes in the self-image while also supporting intellectual honesty.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the essay connect climate change to intellectual and emotional challenges?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It argues that the growing threat from global warming exceeds current cognitive and emotional abilities, leading humanity to act against better knowledge despite grasping the consequences.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What does the essay mean by the “naturalistic turn in the image of humankind”?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It refers to developments in genetics, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy of mind that increasingly explain mental abilities as natural, biologically grounded properties.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},238827,1790232760,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":44,"category_name":45,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":34,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},1374404997633,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Thomas Metzinger  \nSpirituality and  \nIntellectual Honesty  \nAn Essay  \nISBN: 978‐3‐00‐041539‐5 | ISBN-A / DOI: 10.978.300/0415395 Version: April 2014 | Author: Thomas Metzinger | Mainz: [Self-published | Contact:](Self-published | Contact: metzinger@uni-mainz.de)[ metzinger@uni-mainz.de](Self-published | Contact: metzinger@uni-mainz.de)  \nURL: [http://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb05philosophie/fi](http://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb05philosophie/fi)les/2013/04/TheorPhil_Metzinger_SIR_2013_English. pdf  \nThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ger  \nmany License.  \nThomas Metzinger  \nSpirituality and Intellectual Honesty  \nAn Essay  \nPreliminary remarks  \nWe are currently undergoing the beginnings of a historical period of transition that will have a deep impact on our image of ourselves, and on many different levels at the sametime. This accelerating development presents us with a profound challenge. A question of central importance is whether a “secularized spirituality” is possible (or even conceivable) . Could a modern and spiritual self-conception do justice to this historical change in our image of ourselves and the desire (not just important to professional philosophers) for intellectual honesty at the same time?  \nIn the external world, climate change poses a new and historically unique threat to humanity as a whole. As I write these words, this objective danger is barely perceptible. But today we already know for certain that even in a best-case scenario, it will last for several centuries. Conceived of as an intellectual challenge for humankind, the increasing threat arising from self-induced global warming clearly seems to exceed the present cognitive and emotional abilities of our species. This is the first truly global crisis, experienced by all human beings at the same time in a single media-space, and as we watch it unfold, it will also gradually change our image of ourselves, the conception humankind has of itself as a whole. I predict that during the next decades, we will increasingly experience ourselves as failing beings. We will experience ourselves as beings who collectively and stubbornly act against better knowledge, who even under great time-pressure are unable, for psychological reasons, to act jointly and efficiently and to put the necessary formation of political will into effect. The collective self-image of the species Homo sapiens will increasingly be one of a being caught in evolved mechanisms of self-deception to the point of becoming a victim of its own actions. It will be an image of a class of naturally evolved cognitive systems that, because of their own cognitive structure, are unable to react adequately to certain challenges—even  \nwhen they are able to intellectually grasp the expected consequences, and even when, in addition, they consciously experience this very fact about themselves clearly and distinctly.  \nAt the same time, our scientific-philosophical image of ourselves is undergoing a profound upheaval. Our theories about ourselves and especially about our own minds are changing. Elsewhere, I call this second and simultaneously unfolding process the “naturalistic turn in the image of humankind”1 : genetics, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology and contemporary philosophy of mind are successively providing us with a new image of ourselves, an increasingly detailed theoretical understanding of our cognitive deep structure, its neural basis and biological history. Whether we like it or not, we are beginning to view our mental abilities as natural properties with a biological history of their own, as properties that can be explained using the methods of science, that can in principle be controlled technologically and can maybe even be implemented on non-biological carrier systems. Clearly, this development is also an intellectual challenge for humanity as a whole. Subjectively, many experience it as a further threat, as a potential insu","cbCain74JhEmfoRG","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCain74JhEmfoRG","pdf",1293367,36,"English","# Preliminary remarks\n## Historical transition and the challenge of secularized spirituality\n## Climate change, cognition, and collective self-deception\n## The naturalistic turn in the image of humankind\n## Intellectual honesty and spirituality: possible reconciliation\n## Relation to The Ego Tunnel and a public lecture on meditation and science","[{\"question\":\"What central question does the essay raise at the beginning?\",\"answer\":\"Whether a “secularized spirituality” is possible (or even conceivable), and whether a modern spiritual self-conception can match historical changes in the self-image while also supporting intellectual honesty.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the essay connect climate change to intellectual and emotional challenges?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that the growing threat from global warming exceeds current cognitive and emotional abilities, leading humanity to act against better knowledge despite grasping the consequences.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the essay mean by the “naturalistic turn in the image of humankind”?\",\"answer\":\"It refers to developments in genetics, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy of mind that increasingly explain mental abilities as natural, biologically grounded properties.\"}]","Spirituality and Intellectual Honesty - An Essay | PDF",1789139874,91]