Wissenschaft, Religion und die Präpotenz der Grenze: eine essayistische Hommage an Jürgen Mohn

Abstract

This contribution in honor of Jürgen Mohn heuristically contrasts science and religion. It argues that the two elements of this juxtaposition can be formally distinguished based on their respective relationships to cultural dynamics. To develop this idea, the essay draws on Juri Lotman’s concept of the semiosphere. Adopting Lotman’s spatial metaphors, science is associated with the periphery and religion with the center. Accordingly, science is portrayed as a cultural mechanism that sees itself as inherently open to transformation through information arriving from the periphery. In contrast, religion is understood as a cultural mechanism that seeks centralization, homogenization, and stability by attempting to immunize itself against such external influences.