The Cognitive Basis of Science

What makes science possible? Specifically, what features of the human mind, of human cognitive development, and of human social arrangements 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.

A volume of interdisciplinary essays addressing the question: what makes science possible?

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The culmination of the fourth project undertaken by Sheffield University's Hang Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies was hammered together through four workshops and two conferences between 1998 and 2000. Philosophers, psychologists, and others from the cognitive sciences address such questions as how human cognition enables them to do science, whether there is some innate basis for scientific abilities, and the relative importance of the social dimension of science for understanding science and scientific cognition. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Peter Carruthers (born 16 June 1952) is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Maryland College Park. He was until recently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, where he founded and directed the Hang Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies. He is the author of Language, Thought and Consciousness (CUP, 1996), Phenomenal Consciousness: A Naturalistic Theory (CUP, 2000), and (with George Botterill) of The Philosophy of Psychology (CUP, 1999). He co-edited the previous three Hang Seng Centre volumes, Theories of Theories of Mind (CUP, 1996), Language and Thought (CUP, 1998) and Evolution and the Human Mind (CUP, 2000).

Michael Siegal (born 30 March 1950) is Professor of Psychology at the University of Sheffield. He has researched and taught internationally and has published extensively in the area of developmental psychology. Siegal is the author of Knowing Children: Experiments in Conversation and Cognition (2nd ed., Psychology Press, 1997) and co-editor with Candida C. Peterson of Children's Understanding of Biology and Health (CUP, 1999). He has served on the editorial boards of Child Development, Developmental Science, and Developmental Psychology, and is an Associate Editor of the British Journal of Developmental Psychology.

Stephen Stich (born 9th May, 1943) is Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Rutgers University. He previously taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Maryland and the University of California, San Diego and has held visiting appointments at the University of Sydney, the Australian National University, the City University of New York, the University ofCanterbury (New Zealand) and the University of Otago (New Zealand). He is a past President of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Stich is the author of From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science (MIT Press, 1983), The Fragmentation of Reason (MIT Press, 1990), and Deconstructing the Mind (Oxford University Press, 1996), and has published over a hundred papers in professional journals. He is also the editor or co-editor of six volumes, edits the Oxford University Press Evolution and Cognition Series, and is Director of the Rutgers University Research Group on Evolution and Cognition.