Cognitive history and cultural epidemiology

Research output: Contribution to Book/Report typesChapterpeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

The cognitive history of science uses cognitive psychology as a source of information for historians about the thought processes available to scientists while scientific cognition is analyzed as it occurred in historical contexts: scientists are socially situated, and this situation accounts in part for their thoughts and behavior. The cognitive historian also attempts to account for the behavior of scientists by generating hypotheses about the cognitive processes that are actually implemented. Cultural epidemiology aims at describing the social cognitive causal chains out of which cultural items are being produced and distributed. It aims at specifying the behavioral and cognitive bases of cultural phenomena, and provides the conceptual tools for such inquiries. This chapter argues that studies of enculturation and of situated and distributed cognition can also integrate into and benefit from studies in cultural epidemiology.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPast Minds
Subtitle of host publicationStudies in Cognitive Historiography
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages11-28
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)9781315478364
ISBN (Print)9781845537401
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2016

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