Biological And Cultural Bases of Human Inference

Biological and Cultural Bases of Human Inferenceaddresses the interface between social science and cognitive science. In this volume, Viale and colleagues explore which human social cognitive powers evolve naturally and which are influenced by culture. Updating the debate between innatism and culturalism regarding human cognitive abilities, this book represents a much-needed articulation of these diverse bases of cognition. Chapters throughout the book provide social science and philosophical reflections, in addition to the perspective of evolutionary theory and the central assumptions of cognitive science. The overall approach of the text is based on three complementary levels: adult performance, cognitive development, and cultural history and prehistory. Scholars from several disciplines contribute to this volume, including researchers in cognitive, developmental, social and evolutionary psychology, neuropsychology, cognitive anthropology, epistemology, and philosophy of mind. This contemporary, important collection appeals to researchers in the fields of cognitive, social, developmental, and evolutionary psychology and will prove valuable to researchers in the decision sciences.

Riccardo Viale is Professor of Research and Innovation Policy at the Scuola Superiore della Pubblica Amministrazione di Roma (SSPA) and Full Professor of Methodology of Social Sciences at the Faculty of Sociology of the University of Milano-Bicocca. He is Founder and President of the Rosselli Foundation of Turin; Director of LIRA (Laboratory on Innovation, Research and Enterprise) of the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Milano-Bicocca; Scientific Director of LaSCoMES (Laboratory of Cognitive Methodological and Socio-Economic Sciences) of the “Luigi Bocconi” University of Milan, the University of Milano-Bicocca and of the Rosselli Foundation of Turin; Founder of the Associazione Italiana di Scienze Cognitive (Italian Association for Cognitive Sciences); Scientific Director of Istituto di Metodologia della Scienza e della Tecnologia of Turin; Member of the High Level Expert Group on “the integration and combination of nano-, bio-, info-, cognitive sciences and technologies” of the European Commission; Editor in chief of Mind & Society - Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences (Springer-Verlag); Member of the Editorial Board of International Studies of Philosophy of Science; Member of the Editorial Board of Scipolicy – The Journal of Science and Health Policy; Member of the Editorial Board of Sistemi Intelligenti; Consulting Editor of the journal EPISTEME; Member and Visiting Scholar in various foreign universities: Oxford; Aix en Provence; Rice, Houston; Fribourg; Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Santa Barbara.Daniel Andler is a Professor at Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), a member, of the Institut d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences et des techniques (IHPST, Université Paris I & CNRS) and Département d’études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris. Andler holds doctoral degrees in mathematics from UC Berkeley and Paris. After specializing in model theory and teaching mathematics in various universities in and around Paris, he moved to positions in philosophy in Lille and then Nanterre. He is now the professor of philosophy of science and epstemology at Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV). For many years, he was co-director and then director of CREA (Centre de recherche en épistémologie appliquée, Ecole polytechnique and CNRS, Paris). He has just stepped down as founding head of the Department of Cognitive Studies at Ecole normale supérieure, Paris. He is the founding and current President of the Société de philosophie des sciences and vice-president of the Division of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science (DLMPS) of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science. He writes mostly on the foundations of cognitive science. Editor or co-editor of four volumes, he is co-author of a two-volume work in philosophy of science. He is currently working on a couple of connected book projects, one focusing on knowledge, the other on mind.
Lawrence A. Hirschfeld is Professor of Anthropology and Psychology at the New School for Social Research. Until 2005, Hirschfeld was Professor of Anthropology and of Psychology at the University of Michigan where he co-directed the Graduate Program for Culture and Cognition. He is Associate Editor of Cognitive Science and is a member of the Editorial Boards of Journal of Cognition and Culture and Evolutionary Psychology. He was an Advisory Editor for the MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. He was a member of the National Science Foundation’s Anthropology Review Panel Member, a member of the National Science Foundation’s advisory panel on Human Capital Initiative, and a consultant to U.S. Census Bureau. He was Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Science, in 1999-2000 and Visiting Associate Professor of Anthropology and Psychology at Stanford University, 2000-2001.  He was the Julia Lockwood Award Scholar at the University of Michigan, 1996-2001 and directed the University of Michigan’s Academic Program in Aix-en-Provence, 1997-1998. In 1987-1989 he was a member of CREA, CNRS France, and was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship by the Fondation Fyssen.