Opening the Black Box
Cognitive Science and the History of Science
Description:... Introduction: "Over the last 20 years the new interdisciplinary field of 'cognitive science' has been forming. Cognitive science is a loose confederation of cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive anthropology. Recently, a research frontier I call 'cognitive history' has emerged within the history of science and is finding its place in this confederation. The emphasis of cognitive history is on the 'thinking practices' through which scientists create, change, and communicate their representations of nature. I view the task of this paper as largely programmatic; that is, to discuss the motivations behind the approach of cognitive history and to outline a sample of research projects and problems. What I hope to persuade the reader is that cognitive history of science provides new insights into science as a human enterprise. While my own contributions to cognitive history have been inherently multidisciplinary, I will concentrate the discussion here on issues of concern to historians. My objectives are (1) to introduce historians of science to developments in cognitive science, (2) to argue and demonstrate that in some areas historical interpretation has already been enriched by 'cognitive-historical' analysis, (3) to outline potential areas of research within history of science, and (4) to entice historians of science into collaborative research with cognitive scientists on topics of mutual interest. Part I will outline my conception of the research program of cognitive history. Part II will discuss research achievements and pose problems for investigation."
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