Epistemology and cognitive science

Frederick F. Schmitt

pp. 841-918

in: Ilkka Niiniluoto, Matti Sintonen, Jan Woleński (eds), Handbook of epistemology, Berlin, Springer, 2004

Abstract

I will define epistemology in the traditional way, as the conceptual and normative study of knowledge. Epistemology inquires into the definition, criteria, normative standards, and sources of knowledge and of kindred statuses like justified belief, evidence, confirmation, rational belief, perceiving, remembering, and intelligence. Cognitive science is, by contrast, the interdisciplinary empirical study of cognition in human beings, animals, and machines, and the attempt to engineer intelligent cognition.¹ Cognitive science spans work in diverse fields, including empirical cognitive psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence (AI), neuroscience, and cognitive anthropology.² Both epistemology and cognitive science study knowledge, but they have different aims, interests, and methods.