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CogOnt Seminar: J. Sullivan
November 5, 2020 @ 9:00 am - 10:30 am EST
Jackie Sullivan (Western University), “Cognitive Ontologies, Epistemic Communities and Coordinated Pluralism”
Part of our ongoing online seminar series. See the full list of talks here.
Register using this link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KMNKu4fmQ9Wh5ZjvXJ3qQA
Please note, registration will be for the entire seminar series.
ABSTRACT:
Is there only one right cognitive ontology, i.e., the one that carves the mind at the brain’s joints? In this talk, appealing to case studies from areas of cognitive neuroscience that seek to link rodent and human data, I argue that cognitive ontology pluralism is a more realistic proposal. Given that different areas of cognitive neuroscience have different predictive and explanatory goals, experiments in these different areas will be subject to different kinds of epistemic constraints. Moreover, satisfying these constraints requires the formation of what I dub “epistemic communities” whose members collaboratively implement a number of knowledge-building strategies in an effort to achieve their shared predictive or explanatory goals. If this picture is correct, it is suggestive that there will be as many cognitive ontologies as there are epistemic communities in cognitive neuroscience. I contend that this is not a problem just so long as this plurality is used as a corrective to illuminate the limitations of each ontology and thus improve our overall understanding of the mind-brain.