Practical Cognitivism

Non-cognitivism and Inconsistency

Cognitivism in Political Philosophy

A constraint on political cognitivism is that it give some basis for responding to certain worries. These worries prompt political liberals such as Rawls to deny that the search for truth can provide a shared basis for a conception of justice in a pluralistic democratic society.2 On this view, a pluralistic democratic state that avoids the authoritarian use of state power should be neutral abou...

Wittgenstein's 'Non-Cognitivism' - Explained and Vindicated

The later Wittgenstein advanced a revolutionary but puzzling conception of how philosophy ought to be practised: Philosophical problems are not to be coped with by establishing substantive claims or devising explanations or theories. Instead, philosophical questions ought to be treated ‘like an illness’. Even though this ‘non-cognitivism’ about philosophy has become a focus of debate, the speci...

Real Algorithms: A Defense of Cognitivism

Cognitivism is the view that cognition, emotion, and even perception consist of algorithmic transformations of symbols. Since virtually all cognitivists are materialists, few of them believe that these algorithmic transformations of symbols take place in any spiritual or non-physical medium. So, for all practical purposes, cognitivism implies that the brain is an algorithmic symbol-transformer,...

Consciousness and the Decline of Cognitivism

This note examines some paradigms within cognitive science, in part through the lens of consciousness studies, a recent discipline which takes seriously the experience of having a mind. In particular, it discusses cognitivism and representationalism, and some challenges to them based on broader contexts than the individual. Much of this material comes from my experience as editor in chief of th...