The Cognitive Basis of Science

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511613517

Search within full text

The Cognitive Basis of Science concerns the question 'What makes science possible?' Specifically, what features of the human mind and of human culture and cognitive development permit and facilitate the conduct of science? The essays in this volume address these questions, which are inherently interdisciplinary, requiring co-operation between philosophers, psychologists, and others in the social and cognitive sciences. They concern the cognitive, social, and motivational underpinnings of scientific reasoning in children and lay persons as well as in professional scientists. The editors' introduction lays out the background to the debates, and the volume includes a consolidated bibliography that will be a valuable reference resource for all those interested in this area. The volume will be of great importance to all researchers and students interested in the philosophy or psychology of scientific reasoning, as well as those, more generally, who are interested in the nature of the human mind.

- Aa Reduce text
- Aa Enlarge text

View selected items
Save to my bookmarks
Export citations
Download PDF (zip)
Save to Kindle
Save to Dropbox
Save to Google Drive
Save content to
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .

To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Please be advised that item(s) you selected are not available.
You are about to save
Your Kindle email address

Please provide your Kindle email.

@free.kindle.com @kindle.com (service fees apply)

By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services

Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-vi
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Contents
pp vii-viii
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

List of contributors
pp ix-x
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Preface
pp xi-xii
- By Peter Carruthers, Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland College Park, Stephen Stich, Board of Governors Professor, Department of Philosophy and Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, Michael Siegal, Professor of Psychology, University of Sheffield
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

1 - Introduction: what makes science possible?
pp 1-20
- By Peter Carruthers, Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland College Park, Stephen Stich, Board of Governors Professor, Department of Philosophy and Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, Michael Siegal, Professor of Psychology, University of Sheffield
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Part one - Science and innateness
pp 21-22
- By Peter Carruthers, Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland College Park, Stephen Stich, Board of Governors Professor, Department of Philosophy and Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, Michael Siegal, Professor of Psychology, University of Sheffield
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

2 - Human evolution and the cognitive basis of science
pp 23-40
- By Steven Mithen, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

3 - Modular and cultural factors in biological understanding: an experimental approach to the cognitive basis of science
pp 41-72
- By Scott Atran, Anthropology, CNRS Paris and University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

4 - The roots of scientific reasoning: infancy, modularity and the art of tracking
pp 73-96
- By Peter Carruthers, Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland College Park
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Part two - Science and cognition
pp 97-98
- By Peter Carruthers, Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland College Park, Stephen Stich, Board of Governors Professor, Department of Philosophy and Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, Michael Siegal, Professor of Psychology, University of Sheffield
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

5 - Science without grammar: scientific reasoning in severe agrammatic aphasia
pp 99-116
- By Rosemary Varley, Department of Human Communication Sciences, University of Sheffield
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

6 - Causal maps and Bayes nets: a cognitive and computational account of theory-formation
pp 117-132
- By Alison Gopnik, Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, Clark Glymour, Department of Philosophy, Carnegie-Mellon University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

7 - The cognitive basis of model-based reasoning in science
pp 133-153
- By Nancy J. Nersessian, Department of Philosophy, Georgia Tech
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

8 - Understanding the role of cognition in science: the Science as Category framework
pp 154-170
- By Kevin N. Dunbar, Department of Education and Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

9 - Theorizing is important, and collateral information constrains how well it is done
pp 171-192
- By Barbara Koslowski, Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Stephanie Thompson, Department of Human Development, Cornell University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

10 - The influence of prior belief on scientific thinking
pp 193-210
- By Jonathan St B. T. Evans, Department of Psychology, University of Plymouth
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

11 - Thinking about causality: pragmatic, social and scientific rationality
pp 211-232
- By Denis Hilton, Department of Psychology, Université Toulouse-II
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Part three - Science and motivation
pp 233-234
- By Peter Carruthers, Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland College Park, Stephen Stich, Board of Governors Professor, Department of Philosophy and Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, Michael Siegal, Professor of Psychology, University of Sheffield
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

12 - The passionate scientist: emotion in scientific cognition
pp 235-250
- By Paul Thagard, Department of Philosophy, University of Waterloo
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

13 - Emotions and epistemic evaluations
pp 251-262
- By Christopher Hookway, Department of Philosophy, University of Sheffield
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

14 - Social psychology and the theory of science
pp 263-282
- By Philip Kitcher, Department of Philosophy, Columbia University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Part four - Science and the social
pp 283-284
- By Peter Carruthers, Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland College Park, Stephen Stich, Board of Governors Professor, Department of Philosophy and Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, Michael Siegal, Professor of Psychology, University of Sheffield
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

15 - Scientific cognition as distributed cognition
pp 285-299
- By Ronald Giere, Department of Philosophy, University of Minnesota
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

16 - The science of childhood
pp 300-315
- By Michael Siegal, Professor of Psychology, University of Sheffield
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

17 - What do children learn from testimony?
pp 316-334
- By Paul L. Harris, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

18 - The baby in the lab-coat: why child development is not an adequate model for understanding the development of science
pp 335-362
- By Luc Faucher, Department of Philosophy, University of Quebec at Montreal, Ron Mallon, Department of Philosophy, University of Utah, Daniel Nazer, Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University, Shaun Nichols, Department of Philosophy, College of Charleston, Aaron Ruby, Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University, Stephen Stich, Board of Governors Professor, Department of Philosophy and Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, Jonathan Weinberg, Department of Philosophy, Indiana University
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

References
pp 363-395
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Author index
pp 396-404
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Subject index
pp 405-409
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Total number of HTML views: 0

Total number of PDF views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

Total views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

The Cognitive Basis of Science

This Book has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by Crossref.

Book description

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-vi

Contents
pp vii-viii

List of contributors
pp ix-x

Preface
pp xi-xii

1 - Introduction: what makes science possible?
pp 1-20

Part one - Science and innateness
pp 21-22

2 - Human evolution and the cognitive basis of science
pp 23-40

3 - Modular and cultural factors in biological understanding: an experimental approach to the cognitive basis of science
pp 41-72

4 - The roots of scientific reasoning: infancy, modularity and the art of tracking
pp 73-96

Part two - Science and cognition
pp 97-98

5 - Science without grammar: scientific reasoning in severe agrammatic aphasia
pp 99-116

6 - Causal maps and Bayes nets: a cognitive and computational account of theory-formation
pp 117-132

7 - The cognitive basis of model-based reasoning in science
pp 133-153

8 - Understanding the role of cognition in science: the Science as Category framework
pp 154-170

9 - Theorizing is important, and collateral information constrains how well it is done
pp 171-192

10 - The influence of prior belief on scientific thinking
pp 193-210

11 - Thinking about causality: pragmatic, social and scientific rationality
pp 211-232

Part three - Science and motivation
pp 233-234

12 - The passionate scientist: emotion in scientific cognition
pp 235-250

13 - Emotions and epistemic evaluations
pp 251-262

14 - Social psychology and the theory of science
pp 263-282

Part four - Science and the social
pp 283-284

15 - Scientific cognition as distributed cognition
pp 285-299

16 - The science of childhood
pp 300-315

17 - What do children learn from testimony?
pp 316-334

18 - The baby in the lab-coat: why child development is not an adequate model for understanding the development of science
pp 335-362

References
pp 363-395

Author index
pp 396-404

Subject index
pp 405-409

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views

The Cognitive Basis of Science

Book description

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Save Search

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views