Beyond Local Domains: Connective Ontology in (Post-)Cognitive Sociology.
Sociological research online September 1, 2025 James Rupert Fletcher 2 citations
Cognitive science has been dominated by cognitivism, which treats cognition as information-processing in the brain. Recent post-cognitivist approaches instead locate cognition in active socio-material environments. However, most cognitive sociology still assumes a cognitivist ontology, seeing social factors as external influences on the brain. This paper argues that cognitive sociology should engage with post-cognitivist science, using connective ontology from the sociology of personal life to conceptualize cognition as dynamically emergent ecological energies. This offers routes toward genuine social ontologies of cognition as a sociological matter, moving beyond cognitivism.