Simulating “past minds”

Cognitive Historiography between History and the Cognitive Sciences

Authors

  • Thales MM Silva Univesidade Federal de Juiz de Fora

Abstract

This article introduces some questions, topics and challenges currently faced by Cognitive Historiography. To illustrate its divergence and plurality, in addition to the intuitive understanding of this broad research field as a specific sub-discipline of History, we will offer a set of perspectives on how to consider it as an integral part of the Cognitive Sciences. By exposing the common interest of historians in historical change and cultural transmission, this article stresses their specific role in “testing” general hypotheses regarding these dynamics against their data. Finally, using the ancient Mediterranean world as an illustrative example, in disagreement with the current trend in the cognitive study of human-level phenomena, which overemphasizes experimentalism, we will argue for the application of modelling techniques which, regarding the study of cultural dynamics, can be considered as a more methodologically appropriate tool for the cognitive-historiographical research agenda.

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Author Biography

Thales MM Silva, Univesidade Federal de Juiz de Fora

Bacharel em História e Especialista em Antropologia pela Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas da UFMG

Mestre e Doutorando em Ciência da Religião pelo Instituto de Ciências Humanas da UFJF.

Published

2020-01-31