Call for Papers

COGNITIVE ANTHROPOLOGY OF SCIENCE

Special Issue of the Journal of Cognition and Culture

Cognitive Anthropology of Science is at the crossroad of quickly
developing disciplines: Cognitive Science provides more and more tools for
the study of scientific thinking; Science Studies, and in particular the
anthropology of Science, is being enriched with numerous case studies;
Naturalised epistemology is constantly reworking its philosophical
assumptions thus opening new directions for the naturalist study of
science; lastly, cognitive anthropology and ethnoscience, provide
Cognitive Anthropology of Science with a rich tradition. This opens large
prospects for a cognitive anthropological approach to the study of
science. This special edition will aim at both exploring these prospects
and bringing together state-of-the-art research of a not yet established
field.

Cognitive anthropology of science can benefit from several paradigms,
traditions and research methods. First, cognitive anthropologists can show
how cognitive constraints have contributed, together with historical and
cultural factors, to the contents of a given science. Second, sciences are
cultural objects of particular relevance for the cross-cultural study of
notions such as truth or causality, and cognitive operations such as
reasoning or categorising. Third, sciences can be analysed as specific
cultural model or schema that frame individuals' cognition. Scientists at
work, and, more controversially, people in their everyday activities,
appeal to specific ways of thinking informed by the 'culture of science'.
Fourth, scientific practice can be analysed as cognition distributed among
scientists and scientific instruments.

Core issues in these research directions have to do with the relationships
between folk theories and scientific knowledge and practices. Do cognitive
dispositions afford and constrain science in the same way as they afford
and constrain folk knowledge? Can the development of science be seen as a
cultural process of emancipation from cognitive constraints? Can cognitive
anthropology of science provide new insights in evolutionary theories of
science?

Does science manage cognitive resources such as memory, imagination and
reasoning abilities in the same way as other cultural institutions such as
religion?

What are the specific cognitive architectures of scientific institutions?
How do these structures relate to the production of scientific knowledge?
Papers exploring these directions and others dealing with the theoretical
and methodological framework of the cognitive anthropology of science
would be welcome, as well as case studies.

TOPICS OF INTEREST:

The topics of interest of this special issue include (but are not limited
to):

-       Interaction between Cognitive and Contextual factors in the History of
Science
-       Evolutionary Epistemology
-       Science and Distributed Cognition
-       The cognitive bases of scientific practice
-       Empirical studies of scientific practice, using a cognitive
anthropological approach (e.g. in vivo investigations of scientific
cognition)
-       Socio-Cognitive aspects of teaching and learning the Sciences
-       Conceptual Changes in Science
-       Continuity between folk knowledge and scientific practice


IMPORTANT DATES:

ASAP and July 15, 2003 at the latest - statement of interest / abstract
December 10, 2003 - papers due
January 15, 2003 - Notification of acceptance
June 2004 - special issue appears


SUBMISSION :

Submission should be sent by e-mail to:
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Formatting instruction can be found at the journal's web site (see below).
Any queries concerning this special issue should be directed to Christophe
Heintz at the above e-mail address.


THE JOURNAL:

The Journal of Cognition and Culture (ISSN 1567-7095) is edited by E.
Thomas Lawson and Pascal Boyer and published by Brill Academic Publishers
(The Netherlands). For more details, see the journal homepages at
http://www.wmich.edu/cognition/home.html or
http://www.brill.nl/m_catalogue_sub6_id9570.htm . You can also consult the
table of contents of previous issues at Ingenta Select:
http://gottardo.ingentaselect.com/vl=3137579/cl=21/nw=1/rpsv/cw/brill/15670
95/contp1-1.htm .