CogWeb: Introduction and Debate


	Introduction and Debate
	Cognitive Cultural Studies
	(revised 2 August 2002)

"There is no way to avoid having philosophical preconceptions; the only option is whether to examine them explicitly and carefully at some point in one's endeavors."

Daniel Dennett (1987)

Introduction

From Structuralism to Cognitivism
Apology: Why I Am a Cognitivist
Foucault on the Role of the Human Sciences (10/11/97)
"Always historicize": Hernadi debates Jameson (10/28/98)

Public Debates

Literary Studies Debate

Young: Science and the Humanities in the Understanding of Human Nature (May 2000, external)
Andrew Delbanco: The Decline and Fall of Literature (external)
The Unquiet American - Susan Sontag (external)

Science and Civilization Debate
- Nicholas Maxwell: Can Humanity Learn to Become Civilized? The Crisis of Science Without Civilization (1 August 2000, for the Jaspers forum)
Evolution and Ethics Debate

Haught: God After Darwin (April 2000, external)
Peter Singer: Ethics in the Age of Evolutionary Psychology

Animal Rights in the Courts (August 99)
How the Left Got Darwin Wrong (external, May 2000)

Barbara Ehrenreich on Academic Antibiologism: a review
Barbara Ehrenreich and Janet McIntosh, "The New Creationism: Biology Under Attack" (The Nation, June 9, 1997) (full text)
Cartmill: Oppressed by Evolution (external; Discover, March 1998)
Robert Wright on human destiny

Adaptationism Debate

The Most Testable Concept in Biology. Tooby for HBES, January 2000
How "Natural" is Rape? Eherenreich in Time Magazine, January 2000
Gould on Adaptationism and Evolutionary Psychology: a review
Stephen J. Gould, "Evolution: The Pleasure of Pluralism (New York Review of Books, June 26, 1997) (full text)
Frame view of the article and the review (use the back icon to exit)
Tooby & Cosmides' response to Gould (full text, July 7, 1997)
Ursula Goodenough reviews Gould's Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life (external, June 1999)

Anti-Realism Debate

The Quest for a Truly Social Science, John Polanyi (4/00)
Alan Sokal and Jean Brichmont: First Chapter of Fashionable Nonsense
Jim Holt: Is Paris Kidding? Review of Fashionable Nonsense (New York Times November 15, 1998; external, with links to previous discussion)
Alan Sokal's home page

Chagnon vs. Tierney (October 2000, all external)
- Metalinks (Doug Hume at UConn)
- Terence Turner and Leslie Sponsel's letter (19 September; note retraction below)
- "Amazon geneticist 'killed hundreds'" (Alex Kirby, BBC, 23 September 2000)
- U Michigan first statement (27 September)
- Chagnon's responses (various dates)
- Terence Turner's retraction (28 September)
- John Tooby's article in Slate (24 October) and earlier comments
- U Michigan's Ongoing Investigation (20 October 2000; local copy)
- National Academy of Sciences statement (9 November 2000)
- Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon Patrick Tierney (the book appeared in mid-November 2000)
- Geertz on Tierney: Life Among the Anthros (NYRB, 8 February 2001)
- Gregor and Gross sums up: Anthropology and the Search for the Enemy Within (Chronical of Higher Education, 26 July 2002)

Expostulation and Reply

In Bluebeard's Castle: The essentialist assumptions behind Cultural Constructivism
The Pomomamö and the Boat Builders:A Postmodern Fable

Conceptual Framework

No Final Theory: Cognitive Constructivism (9/99)

Quote of the Day

"Oh, the disgrace of nature! Oh, the confusion of humanity! which makes it that a man cannot be free without being a criminal. Must he be rendered a slave in order to be virtuous? Yes, my brothers, that is our condition; our passions require laws, our unjust and reckless desires must be restrained."

Éloge de la Maçonnerie et des Maçons; prononcé par un Frère dans une Loge qui se tint à Paris le 25 Novembre 1744, p. 11. Anonymous tract. From Jacob, Margaret C. Living the Enlightenment. New York, NY: OUP, 1991. Jacob's translation, p. 6.