IS HISTORY A COGNITIVE SCIENCE?
Alexandra Borisovna Anikina
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia
Keywords: narrative, cognitive science, theory of historical knowledge, evolutionary epistemology, post-nonclassical paradigm
Abstract
This article examines possible foundations for assessing the credibility of various historical narratives. The search for such foundations is conducted by placing history within the context of cognitive science, beginning with the question of whether the specificity of historical knowledge manifests itself at the level of cognitive processes. It is proposed that narrative constructions are the result of the development of the mind's ability to represent processes. Drawing on ideas from evolutionary epistemology, which understands cognition as a means of increasing organisms' adaptability to changing conditions, history is examined as the ability of social actors to represent processes in order to increase the predictability of their actions.
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