In 2006 Daniel Dennett publishes Breaking the Spell, proposing that religion itself be studied as a natural phenomenon, its origins and persistence explained by the evolution of minds. The book, appearing beside the other new atheist works of those years, is the naturalist program applied to the subject this site exists to map.
Tagged: Naturalism
The Event
- Date
- 2006 (exact)
- Era
- The Contemporary Program; Standard periodization of naturalist history
- Location
- New York; today New York, New York
- Traditions
- Naturalism
- Streams
- Naturalism
- Key figures
- Daniel Dennett
- Key texts
- Breaking the Spell
Connections
Primary Sources
- Dennett, Daniel C. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. New York: Viking, 2006.
Secondary Sources
- De Caro, Mario, and David Macarthur, eds. Naturalism in Question. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
- Gregory, Frederick. Scientific Materialism in Nineteenth Century Germany. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1977.
- Papineau, David. Philosophical Naturalism. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
Provenance: HIST-1418; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
Related on This Site
History Event
Büchner's Force and Matter
1855
History Event
D'Holbach's System of Nature
1770
History Event
Huxley's Man's Place in Nature
1863
History Event
La Mettrie's Man a Machine
1747
History Event
Laplace's Exposition of the System of the World
1796
History Event
Mill's A System of Logic
1843
History Event
Newton's Principia Mathematica
1687
World View
Naturalism
Naturalism holds that nature is all there is: the universe of matter, energy, and natural law needs no god, soul, or purpose beyond itself.