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i Current Controversies in Philosophy of Cognitive Science Cognitive science is the study of minds and mental processes. Psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and philosophy, among other subdisciplines, contribute to this study. In this volume, leading researchers debate five core questions in the philosophy of cognitive science: • Is an innate Universal Grammar required to explain our linguistic capacities? • Are concepts innate or learned? • What role do our bodies play in cognition? • Can neuroscience help us understand the mind? • Can cognitive science help us understand human morality? For each topic, the volume provides two essays, each advocating for an opposing approach. The editors provide study questions and suggested readings for each topic, helping to make the volume accessible to readers who are new to the debates. Adam J. Lerner is Assistant Professor/ Faculty Fellow at the New York University Center for Bioethics. He completed his PhD in Philosophy at Princeton University in 2018 and he works on issues in ethics, metaethics, moral psychology, and the philosophy of mind. Simon Cullen is Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. He earned his PhD in Philosophy at Princeton University in 2015 and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton Neuroscience Institute in 2017. His work focuses on the folk concept of self, especially the notion of a “true self” and its theoretical and normative implications; developing empirical methods to advance experimental philosophy and other areas of social scientific inquiry; and helping people improve at open- minded analytical reasoning and communication. Sarah- Jane Leslie is the Class of 1943 Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Graduate School at Princeton University. She is the author of numerous articles in philosophy and psychology, published in journals such as Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Philosophical Review, and Noûs. ii Current Controversies in Philosophy Series Editor: John Turri, University of Waterloo In venerable Socratic fashion, philosophy proceeds best through reasoned con- versation. Current Controversies in Philosophy provides short, accessible volumes that cast a spotlight on ongoing central philosophical conversations. In each book, pairs of experts debate four or five key issues of contemporary concern, setting the stage for students, teachers and researchers to join the discussion. Short chapter descriptions precede each chapter, and an annotated bibliography and suggestions for further reading conclude each controversy. In addition, each volume includes both a general introduction and a supplemental guide to further controversies. Combining timely debates with useful pedagogical aids allows the volumes to serve as clear and detailed snapshots, for all levels of readers, of some the most exciting work happening in philosophy today. Published Volumes in the Series: Current Controversies in Bioethics Edited by S. Matthew Liao and Collin O’Neil Current Controversies in Philosophy of Film Edited by Katherine Thomson-Jones Current Controversies in Metaphysics Edited by Elizabeth Barnes Current Controversies in Values and Science Edited by Kevin C. Elliott and Daniel Steel Current Controversies in Philosophy of Religion Edited by Paul Draper Current Controversies in Philosophy of Cognitive Science Edited by Adam J. Lerner, Simon Cullen, and Sarah-Jane Leslie For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Current-Controversies-in-Philosophy/book-series/CCIP iii Current Controversies in Philosophy of Cognitive Science Edited by Adam J. Lerner, Simon Cullen, and Sarah- Jane Leslie iv First published 2020 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Taylor & Francis The right of Adam J. Lerner, Simon Cullen and Sarah- Jane Leslie to be identified as authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 85800- 8 (hbk) ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 02627- 3 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Newgen Publishing UK v Contents Notes on Contributors vii Introduction 1 PART I Is There a Universal Grammar? 11 1 Universal Grammar 13 PAUL PIETROSKI AND NORBERT HORNSTEIN 2 Waiting for Universal Grammar 29 GEOFFREY K. PULLUM Further Readings for Part I 44 Study Questions for Part I 46 PART II Are All Concepts Learned? 47 3 Beyond Origins: Developmental Pathways and the Dynamics of Brain Networks 49 LINDA B. SMITH, LISA BYRGE, AND OLAF SPORNS 4 The Metaphysics of Developing Cognitive Systems: Why the Brain Cannot Replace the Mind 63 MARK FEDYK AND FEI XU Further Readings for Part II 83 Study Questions for Part II 84 vi vi Contents PART III What Is the Role of the Body in Cognition? 85 5 Embodied Cognition and the Neural Reuse Hypothesis 87 JULIAN KIVERSTEIN 6 Rehashing Embodied Cognition and the Neural Reuse Hypothesis 108 FRED ADAMS Further Readings for Part III 117 Study Questions for Part III 118 PART IV How Should Neuroscience Inform the Study of Cognition? 119 7 Is Cognitive Neuroscience an Oxymoron? 121 FIERY CUSHMAN 8 On the Primacy of Behavioral Research for Understanding the Brain 134 YAEL NIV Further Readings for Part IV 150 Study Questions for Part IV 152 PART V What Can Cognitive Science Teach Us About Ethics? 153 9 The Ethical Significance of Cognitive Science 155 VICTOR KUMAR 10 Putting the “Social” Back in Social Psychology 174 COLIN KLEIN Further Readings for Part V 188 Study Questions for Part V 190 Index 191 vii Contributors Fred Adams is Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at the University of Delaware. He is also Professor of Philosophy there. He has published over 150 articles on philosophy and cognitive science, in addition to his jointly published book Bounds of Cognition (2007) and Introduction to the Philosophy of Psychology (2018). Lisa Byrge is Postdoctoral Researcher at Indiana University. Her research focuses on detecting and understanding individual differences in brain function using fMRI. Fiery Cushman is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Social Sciences in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. His research focuses on value- guided decision making and, especially, moral judgment and decision making. Mark Fedyk is Associate Professor in the Bioethics Program of the UC Davis School of Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. He is the author of The Social Turn in Moral Psychology (2017) as well as a variety of articles and chapters that examine how normative phenomena can be studied using scientific methods. Norbert Hornstein teaches linguistics at the University of Maryland. He has written several books on syntactic theory including A Theory of Syntax (2009) and Move! (2001). Julian Kiverstein is Senior Researcher at the University of Amsterdam Medical Centre based in the Psychiatry Department. He has published extensively in the philosophy of embodied cognition, including the monograph Extended Consciousness and Predictive Processing: A Third- Wave View, co- authored with Michael Kirchhoff (2019). Colin Klein is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University. His work focuses on philosophy of neuroscience, pain perception (What the Body Commands, 2015), and online trust. He is also a CI on the ANU Humanizing Machine Intelligence project, where he explores the philosophical and ethical implications of machine learning algorithms. vnewiiigenprepdf viii Contributors Victor Kumar is Assistant Professor at Boston University. He works mainly at the intersection of ethics and cognitive science. His published work can be found in Ethics, Noûs, and Philosophers’ Imprint. In recent years he has written about moral learning, moral luck, and moral disgust. He is currently finishing a book with Richmond Campbell about moral evolution and moral progress. Yael Niv is Professor in the Psychology Department at Princeton University, and at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. Her lab’s research focuses on the neural and computational processes underlying reinforcement learning and decision making. She is co- founder and co- director of the Rutgers– Princeton Center for Computational Cognitive Neuropsychiatry. Paul Pietroski is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. His research addresses questions concerning linguistic meaning and its relation to cognition. His most recent book is Conjoining Meanings: Semantics without Truth Values (2018). He has held visiting positions at Harvard University and the École Normale, Paris. Geoffrey K. Pullum is Professor of General Linguistics in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Linguistic Society of America. He has published widely in theoretical linguistics, English grammar, and philosophy of linguistics. Linda B. Smith is Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Chancellor’s Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University, Bloomington. Olaf Sporns is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University in Bloomington. His main research area is theoretical and computational neuroscience, with a focus on complex brain networks. In addition to numerous peer- reviewed journal articles, he has authored two books, Networks of the Brain and Discovering the Human Connectome. Fei Xu is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on cognitive and language development from infancy to middle childhood. She has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. In recent years, she and her collaborators have developed a rational constructivist theory of cognitive development, with a strong emphasis on char- acterizing mechanisms of learning such as language/s ymbol learning, Bayesian inductive learning, and constructive thinking. 1 Introduction Cognitive science is the study of minds and mental processes. Psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and philosophy, among other subdisciplines, all contribute to this study. Consequently, work done under the heading “philosophy of cognitive science” varies significantly. Some of this work could be more accurately described as philosophy in cognitive science, wherein philosophical methods are used to advance first- order debates in cognitive science that have a distinctly philosophical flavor (e.g., concerning cognitive architecture, the innateness of concepts, the ability to think about other minds). Some of what gets called “philosophy of cognitive science” could be more accurately described as philosophy with cognitive science or even cognitive science of philosophy, in which researchers draw on results from cognitive science to advance a wide variety of questions in philosophy concerning not just the metaphysics of mind, but also epistemology, ethics, philosophy of language, and philosophical methodology in general. The rest of what gets called “philosophy of cognitive science” is most accurately described as philosophy of cognitive science, which addresses the methodological and general ontological presuppositions of cognitive science (e.g., concerning the nature of representation, the relationship between modeling and ontology, what explanation requires, the possibility of reduction, standards of theory choice). But these distinct strands of work in philosophy of cognitive science are not entirely independent. Indeed, most chapters in this volume address both first- order questions about cognition and second-o rder (methodological) questions about how best to study cognition. The authors argue that what we say about the first- order questions should inform our methodological views, and vice versa. As will become evident, a dominant thread running throughout the volume involves the rippling implications of new empirical methods for addressing questions that have been traditionally considered a priori or best pursued using older empirical methods. Part I The volume begins with two cutting- edge contributions to perhaps the 20th century’s most contentious debate in philosophy of cognitive science: the debate over Universal Grammar. In their contribution, Paul Pietroski and Norbert