Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:00:26.575Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of Agency in Distributed Cognitive Systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Ronald N. Giere
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In previous publications I have argued that much scientific activity should be thought of as involving the operation of distributed cognitive systems. Since these contributions to the cognitive study of science appear in venues not necessarily frequented by philosophers of science, I begin with a brief introduction to the notion of a distributed cognitive system. I then describe what I take to be an exemplary case of a scientific distributed cognitive system, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). I do not here reargue the case for conceiving of systems like the HST as distributed cognitive systems. Rather, I examine a question that arises once one has adopted the perspective of distributed cognitive systems, namely, the role of agency in a distributed cognitive system. Here I argue, contrary to several advocates of distributed cognitive systems, that we should regard the human components of distributed cognitive systems as the only sources of agency within such systems. In particular, we should not extend notions of agency to such systems as a whole.

Type
Cognitive Studies of Science: Vision, Models, and Agency in Scientific Cognition
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 73 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers. Edited by Miriam Solomon , December 2006 , pp. 710 - 719
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cartwright, Nancy D. (1983), How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cartwright, Nancy D. (1989), Nature’s Capacities and Their Measurement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cartwright, Nancy D. (1999), The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Churchland, Paul M. (1989), A Neurocomputational Perspective: The Nature of Mind and the Structure of Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Churchland, Paul M. (1995), The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Andy (1997), Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (1988), Explaining Science: A Cognitive Approach. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (1999), Science Without Laws. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (2002a), “Scientific Cognition as Distributed Cognition,” in Carruthers, Peter, Stitch, Stephen, and Siegal, Michael (eds.), The Cognitive Basis of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 285–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (2002b), “Models as Parts of Distributed Cognitive Systems,” in Magnani, Lorenzo and Nersessian, Nancy (eds.), Model Based Reasoning: Science, Technology, Values. New York: Kluwer/Plenum, 227–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (2002c), “Distributed Cognition in Epistemic Cultures,” Philosophy of Science 69:637–644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (2003), “The Role of Computation in Scientific Cognition,” Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 15:195–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (2004), “The Problem of Agency in Scientific Distributed Cognitive Systems,” Journal of Cognition and Culture 4:759–774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (2006), Scientific Perspectivism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, Ronald N., and Moffatt, Barton (2003), “Distributed Cognition: Where the Cognitive and the Social Merge,” Social Studies of Science 33:301–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchins, Edwin (1995), Cognition in the Wild. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Knorr-Cetina, Karin (1999), Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno (1986), “Visualization and Cognition: Thinking with Eyes and Hands,” Knowledge and Society: Studies in the Sociology of Culture, Past and Present 6:1–40.Google Scholar
Rupert, Robert D. (2004), “Challenges to the Hypothesis of Extended Cognition,” Journal of Philosophy 101:389–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suppe, Fredrick (1989), The Semantic Conception of Theories and Scientific Realism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Teller, Paul (2001), “Twilight of the Perfect Model Model,” Erkenntnis 55:393–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teller, Paul (2004), “The Law Idealization,” Philosophy of Science 71:730–741.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, Bas C. (1980), The Scientific Image. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, Bas C. (1989), Laws and Symmetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar