Autonomous Self and Inter-Processual Self: Two Ways of Explaining How People “See” and Live Relationships and the Resulting Dialogue Between Science and Faith

The relationship between science and faith is not a given, nor is it objectively defined, but rather depends on personal ways of approaching this relationship. Accordingly, it can be lived as a conflict, i.e. as agency striving to master independent and separate domains or as a process of dialogue or an integral relationship. In this chapter, we suggest that adopting one stance or the other depends on factors that go beyond the rational assessment that a person makes of science or faith. To explain the perspective that people adopt, cross-disciplinary theoretical insights relevant to human beings and their development are decisive. Based on previous research consolidating several theoretical proposals across a diverse disciplinary orientation (mainly philosophy, psychology and neuroscience), we suggest that there are two contrasting paradigms for conceiving of the self and human development, namely, the autonomous self (AS) and the inter-processual self (IPS) (Akrivou K, Orón JV: Challenges of capitalism for virtue and the common good: Inter-disciplinary perspectives. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2016). We purport here that, depending on which of these two corresponding backgrounds characterises the person, people will ‘see’ and live the relationship—dialogue between science and faith—differently.© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Part of Springer Nature.