Conceptual foundations of cognitive anthropology
O. V. Plebanek
St. Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Keywords: cognitive approach, cognitive anthropology, autopoiesis, biocultural evolution, distributed cognition
Abstract
Introduction. The complexity and coherence of modern socio-economic and geopolitical processes have led to the development of new approaches to the study of social existence. Traditional social disciplines, which were established in the classical scientific paradigm, have not been able to solve the problems facing society. The scientific approaches that are emerging in the post-non-classical paradigm have proposed a model of existence in which research objects cannot be considered outside of their systemic relationships with the super-system, and the functioning of an object cannot be understood in the paradigm of direct linear determination. Methodology. The post-non-classical research program of complex self-developing objects implies a model of existence based on the principles of systemicity, coherence, and congruence. This vision of complex objects determines the interdisciplinary nature of modern science and the constitution of synthetic disciplines. One of these disciplines, which emerged during the formation of the post-non-classical paradigm, is cognitive anthropology. Discussion. In the second half of the 20th century, there were epistemological transformations in science, which came to be known as the cognitive turn. The most important change in the model of social reality was not only the cognitive approach itself - the idea that all structures of social existence are based on cognitive processes - but also the change in the model of cognitive itself. In the framework of these methodological approaches, concepts emerged that included a larger number of parameters that need to be taken into account in research. Conclusion. A more complex model of social processes allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena occurring in society. This complex model is based on concepts that emerged at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, such as the concept of autopoiesis, the concept of biocultural evolution, and the concept of distributed cognition.
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