Book contents
- Cognitive Ontology
- Cognitive Ontology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Cognitive Kinds
- Chapter 2 Concepts
- Chapter 3 Innateness
- Chapter 4 Domain Specificity
- Chapter 5 Episodic Memory
- Chapter 6 Language-Thought Processes
- Chapter 7 Cognitive Heuristics and Biases
- Chapter 8 Body Dysmorphic Disorder
- Chapter 9 Epilogue
- References
- Index
Chapter 1 - Cognitive Kinds
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2023
- Cognitive Ontology
- Cognitive Ontology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Cognitive Kinds
- Chapter 2 Concepts
- Chapter 3 Innateness
- Chapter 4 Domain Specificity
- Chapter 5 Episodic Memory
- Chapter 6 Language-Thought Processes
- Chapter 7 Cognitive Heuristics and Biases
- Chapter 8 Body Dysmorphic Disorder
- Chapter 9 Epilogue
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter sets out the broad metaphysical picture that guides the inquiry. I derive a naturalist notion of kinds from the nineteenth-century discussion of classification and kinds initiated by Whewell, Mill, and Venn, rather than the more recent essentialist view of natural kinds suggested by Kripke and Putnam. I go on to defend a “simple causal theory” of cognitive kinds, which conceives of them as “nodes in causal networks” in the cognitive domain. In addition, I argue against the layer-cake picture of scientific domains and put forward some reasons to resist reductionism when it comes to cognitive categories, based on different bases for individuating cognitive and neural categories. Finally, I respond to some concerns that the resulting ontological picture is not a realist one, on the grounds that it countenances the existence of cognitive kinds that are mind-dependent and self-reflexive.
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- Cognitive OntologyTaxonomic Practices in the Mind-Brain Sciences, pp. 1 - 32Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023