{"pk":50119,"title":"What theoretical horizon for cognition? Towards a categorical cognitive science","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Cognitive science was founded on the idea that an understanding of mind requires interdisciplinary approaches among specialist fields. However, after more than half a century since the cognitive revolution, the study of mind is as specialized as ever, which raises an existential question: What lies on the horizon for a theory of cognition—unification or dissolution? This question is approached by way of a parallel with the (meta-)mathematical field of category theory. A core principle is construction by universal (mapping) property: every instance of a structure is uniquely composed of a common constituent (map). This principle applies at the level of categories and at the meta-level of categories of other categories. The analogous view of cognitive science presented here is as a meta-theory employing this unifying principle: in the form of a slogan, Cognitive science is to mind as category theory is to mathematics.\n\nFunding: JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP23K11797","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Philosophy; Psychology; Cognitive architectures; Other; Representation; Mathematical modeling"}],"section":"Abstracts with Poster Presentation (accepted as Abstracts)","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4qp2c86h","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Steven","middle_name":"","last_name":"Phillips","name_suffix":"","institution":"National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2025-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/50119/galley/38081/download/"}]}