Beyond Local Domains

Connective Ontology in (Post-)Cognitive Sociology

Bibliographic Data

ID2392387
AuthorsJames Rupert Fletcher (0000-0001-9198-4321, The University of Manchester, UK, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume30
Issue3
Pages829-838
Publication date2025-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Research Online (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-7804 • E-ISSN: 1360-7804
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13607804241237768
PMID41937862
OpenAlexW4399500592
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited47

Ontology in cognitive science has long been dominated by cognitivism, developing computer science metaphors to position cognition as intrinsic mind-brain information-processing. Contemporary cognitivism hypothesises localised domain-specificity, disaggregating cognition into discrete subtypes, each of which exists in a dedicated brain region. Latterly, peripheral cognitive science scholarships have contested these ideas, cultivating post-cognitivist dispositions with radical ontologies, relocating cognition in active socio-material ecologies. Nonetheless, much cognitive sociology retains cognitivist ontology, treating sociological phenomena as extrinsic constraints that influence the mind-brain's foundational cognition. I argue that cognitive sociology could fruitfully engage with post-cognitivist science. As an example, I use connective ontology, from the sociology of personal life, to conceptualise cognition as dynamically emergent and vitally animated ecological connective energies. Doing so, I show that post-cognitivism offers routes towards genuine social ontologies of cognition as a sociological matter, moving beyond cognitivism

Cognition · Cognitive science · Epistemology · Ontology · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Philosophy · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics

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