Inflating the social aspects of cognitive structural realism

European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (3):1-18 (2021)
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Abstract

Inspired by Ronald Giere’s cognitive approach to scientific models, Cognitive Structural Realism has presented a naturalist account of scientific representation. CSR characterises the structure of theories in terms of cognitive structures. These are informational structures embodied in the brains of scientists. CSR accounts for scientific representation in terms of the dynamical relationship between the organism and its environment. The proposal has been criticised on account of its negligence of social aspects of scientific practice. The present paper aims to chart out a reply to the objection. It shows that cognitive structures do not need to be put inside the brains of single individuals. Cognitive structures are redefined as extended structures in distributed cognitive systems under Free Energy Principle.

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Majid D. Beni
Middle East Technical University

Citations of this work

A tale of two architectures.Majid D. Beni - 2022 - Consciousness and Cognition 98 (C):103257.

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