Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:09:15.623Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Implications of the Cognitive Sciences for the Philosophy of Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

Ronald N. Giere*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Does recent work in the cognitive sciences have any implications for theories or methods employed within the philosophy of science itself? The answer to this question depends first on one’s conception of the philosophy of science and then on the nature of work being done in the various different fields comprising the cognitive sciences. For example, one might think of the philosophy of science as being an autonomous discipline that is both logically and epistemologically prior to any empirical inquiry. If the cognitive sciences are empirical sciences, then research in the cognitive sciences could not have any significant implications for the philosophy of science. And that would be the end of the matter. Logical Empiricism is now typically understood as having exemplified this point of view.

More specifically, Logical Empiricism took it for granted (i) that scientific knowledge should be understood as ideally having the structure of a formal logical calculus, and (ii) that the empirical warrant for scientific claims is given by directly observed data together with formal rules which determine the weight of the evidence for or against the particular claims in question.

Type
Part XI. Implications of the Cognitive Sciences for Philosophy of Science
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1991

Footnotes

1

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation and the hospitality of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

References

Carey, S. (1985), Conceptual Change in Childhood. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Churchland, P.M. (1989), A Neurocomputational Perspective. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Darden, L. (1991), “Strategies for Anomaly Resolution”. In Cognitive Models of Science, ed. Giere, R.N., Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 15. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Gentner, D. and Stevens, A.L. (1983), Mental Models, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Giere, R.N. (1988), Explaining Science: A Cognitive Approach. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, R.N. (1989a), “The Units of Analysis in Science Studies”. In The Cognitive Turn: Sociological and Psychological Perspectives on Science, ed. Fuller, S., DeMey, M., Shinn, T., and Woolgar, S., Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Giere, R.N. (1989b), “What Does Explanatory Coherence Explain?Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12 (1989), 475-76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glymour, C. et al. (1987), Discovering Causal Structure: Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Science, and Statistical Modelling. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P.N. (1983), Mental Models. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T.S. (1962), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press (2nd ed. 1970).Google Scholar
Kuhn, T.S. (1977), The Essential Tension. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulkarni, D., and Simon, H. (1988), “The Processes of Scientific Discovery: The Strategy of Experimentation”. Cognitive Science, 12:139175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakatos, I. (1970), “Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes”. In Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, ed. Lakatos, I. and Musgrave, A.. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1987), Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langley, P., Simon, H.A., Bradshaw, G.L., and Zytkow, J.M. (1987), Scientific Discovery. Cambridge: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larkin, J.H., and Simon, H.A. (1987), “Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth a Thousand Words”. Cognitive Science, 11:6599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, L. (1977), Progress and Its Problems. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Laudan, L. (1984), Science and Values. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Neisser, U. (1976), Cognition and Reality. New York: Freeman.Google Scholar
Nersessian, N.J. (1984), Faraday to Einstein: Constructing Meaning in Scientific Theories. Dordrecht: Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nersessian, N.J. (1988), “Reasoning from Imagery and Analogy in Scientific Concept Formation”. In PSA 1988, vol. 2, ed. Fine, A. and Leplin, J., 4147. East Lansing, MI: The Philosophy of Science Association.Google Scholar
Nersessian, N.J. (1991), “How do Scientists Think? Capturing the Dynamics of Conceptual Change in Science”. In Cognitive Models of Science, ed. Giere, R.N., Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 15. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Nowak, G. and Thagard, P. (1991), “Copernicus, Ptolemy, and Explanatory Coherence”. In Cognitive Models of Science, ed. Giere, R.N., Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 15. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Richards, R. (1987), Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapin, S. (1982), “History of Science and its Sociological Reconstructions”. History of Science 20:157211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shrager, J. and Langley, P. (1990), Computational Models of Discovery and Theory Formation. Palo Alto, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc.Google Scholar
Simon, H.A. (1978), “On the Forms of Mental Representation”. In Perception and Cognition: Issues in the Foundations of Psychology, ed. Savage, C.W., 3-18, Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 9. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Suppe, F. (1989), The Semantic Conception of Theories and Scientific Realism. Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Thagard, P. (1988), Computational Philosophy of Science. Cambridge: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thagard, P. (1989), “Explanatory Coherence”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 12: 435467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thagard, P. (1991), Conceptual Revolutions. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
van Fraassen, B.C. (1980), The Scientific Image. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, B.C. (1989), Laws and Symmetry. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar