The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

In order to answer the question of the dissertation a theoretical model of divination will be
developed. To do this, first the phenomenon of divination will be characterized. Then the
cognitive basis for this will be investigated. The general theoretical model of divination will
then try to integrate these cognitive factors with ecological and social factors. This model
will be used to analyze the sources for Roman divination.
At this point it seems appropriate to clarify what is meant by cognitive science and why
this approach is well suited to solve the problem of this dissertation. Cognitive science is a
term used to describe an interdisciplinary field of interrogation. The object is to understand
how humans acquire and use knowledge. It emerged in, what has been termed, the “cognitive
turn” in the 1960s and 1970s as a critique of the dominant behaviorist paradigm in
psychology. Although earlier significant criticisms of this paradigm had been leveled against
behaviorism, the most famous is Noam Chomsky’s. Chomsky introduced the idea of a
generative grammar. All humans possess a universal grammar. This is a system of simple
cognitive rules on the basis of which all the different actual grammars of the world are
constructed.
This is far from the only root of the field of cognitive science. Already early categorization
was at the center of attention for cognitive psychologists, developmental psychologists and
cognitive anthropologists. Another important precipitating factor to the development of
cognitive science was the improved capabilities of computers. This stimulated research in
artificial intelligence. Already Turing had discovered that a symbol processor could perform
functions equal to the human mind. Therefore manipulation of symbols became a central
concern. Neuroscientists also contributed to the development, because it became clear that
specific neurological impairments had specific effect on cognitive performance. All these
sub-fields continue to contribute to cognitive science and it is not rare that a problem within
one is treated in another.
Since the approach taken here is informed by a field called the cognitive science of religion,
I will just briefly sketch what this field is and what characterizes work in this field. The
cognitive science of religion was inaugurated in 1990 with the publication of two books:
Rethinking Religion (Lawson & McCauley 1990) and Tradition as Truth and
Communication (Boyer 1990). The historian of religion E. Thomas Lawson and philosopher
of science Robert N. McCauley developed a theory of religious ritual. The basic approach
was that of Chomsky, that is, a competence approach. They stipulated a small number of
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