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FLOCKS, SWARMS, CROWDS, AND SOCIETIES: ON THE SCOPE AND LIMITS OF COGNITION

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Date Issued:
2017
Abstract/Description:
Traditionally, the concept of cognition has been tied to the brain or the nervous system. Recent work in various noncomputational cognitive sciences has enlarged the category of "cognitive phenomena" to include the organism and its environment, distributed cognition across networks of actors, and basic cellular functions. The meaning, scope, and limits of 'cognition' are no longer clear or well-defined. In order to properly delimit the purview of the cognitive sciences, there is a strong need for a clarification of the definition of cognition. This paper will consider the outer bounds of that definition. Not all cognitive behaviors of a given organism are amenable to an analysis at the organismic or organism-environment level. In some cases, emergent cognition in collective biological and human social systems arises that is irreducible to the sum cognitions of their constituent entities. The group and social systems under consideration are more extensive and inclusive than those considered in studies of distributed cognition to date. The implications for this ultimately expand the purview of the cognitive sciences and bring back a renewed relevance for anthropology and introduce sociology on the traditional six-pronged interdisciplinary wheel of the cognitive sciences.
Title: FLOCKS, SWARMS, CROWDS, AND SOCIETIES: ON THE SCOPE AND LIMITS OF COGNITION.
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Name(s): Neemeh, Zachariah A, Author
Favela, Luis H., Committee Chair
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2017
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: Traditionally, the concept of cognition has been tied to the brain or the nervous system. Recent work in various noncomputational cognitive sciences has enlarged the category of "cognitive phenomena" to include the organism and its environment, distributed cognition across networks of actors, and basic cellular functions. The meaning, scope, and limits of 'cognition' are no longer clear or well-defined. In order to properly delimit the purview of the cognitive sciences, there is a strong need for a clarification of the definition of cognition. This paper will consider the outer bounds of that definition. Not all cognitive behaviors of a given organism are amenable to an analysis at the organismic or organism-environment level. In some cases, emergent cognition in collective biological and human social systems arises that is irreducible to the sum cognitions of their constituent entities. The group and social systems under consideration are more extensive and inclusive than those considered in studies of distributed cognition to date. The implications for this ultimately expand the purview of the cognitive sciences and bring back a renewed relevance for anthropology and introduce sociology on the traditional six-pronged interdisciplinary wheel of the cognitive sciences.
Identifier: CFH2000191 (IID), ucf:46026 (fedora)
Note(s): 2017-05-01
B.A.
College of Arts and Humanities, Philosophy
Bachelors
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): social cognition
animal cognition
4EA cognition
systems science
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000191
Restrictions on Access: public
Host Institution: UCF

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