Connectionists: Call for papers: "Cognitive Social Sciences---Grounding the Social Sciences in the Cognitive Sciences?"

[Professor Ron Sun]

                      The workshop on

  "Cognitive Social Sciences---Grounding the Social Sciences in the  
Cognitive Sciences?"

          http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/wsp2010.html

  to be held at CogSci 2010 in Portland, Oregon, on August 11, 2010.

This workshop is aimed at exploring the cognitive (psychological)  
basis of the social sciences and the possibilities of grounding the  
social sciences in cognition (psychology).

Cognitive sciences have made tremendous strides in recent decades. In  
particular, computational cognitive modeling (i.e., computational  
psychology; Sun, 2008; Thagard, 1996) has changed the ways in which  
cognition/psychology is explored and understood in many profound  
respects. There have been many models of cognition/psychology proposed  
in the cognitive sciences (broadly defined), leading to detailed  
understanding of many cognitive/psychological domains and  
functionalities. Empirical psychological research has also progressed  
to provide us with much better understanding of many psychological  
phenomena.

Given the advances in the cognitive sciences, can we leverage the  
successes for the sake of better understanding social processes and  
phenomena? More fundamentally, can the cognitive sciences (including  
experimental cognitive psychology, computational psychology, social- 
personality psychology, developmental psychology, cultural  
psychology,  psycholinguistics, philosophy of mind, cognitive  
neuroscience, and so on) provide a better foundation for important  
disciplines of the social sciences (sociology, anthropology,  
economics, political science, ethics, as well as some "humanity"  
fields: religious studies, history, legal studies,  literary studies,  
communication, and so on)?

Thus far, although very much a neglected topic, there nevertheless  
have been various efforts at exploring this topic. Some of the efforts  
were computationally motivated (see, e.g., Sun, 2006: "Cognition and  
multi-agent interaction", published by Cambridge University Press).  
Some other efforts are more empirical or theoretical in nature (see,  
e.g., Turner, 2001: "Cognitive Dimensions of Social Science",  
published by Oxford University Press).

There are both theoretical and practical rationales for developing  
"cognitive social sciences" (see Turner, 2001; Sun, 2006; DiMaggio,  
1997; Tetlock and Goldgeier, 2000; Camerer, 2003). We contend that the  
social sciences may find their future in the cognitive sciences (at  
least in part), which may well lead to a powerful and productive  
combined intellectual enterprise. This combination or grounding may  
provide the social sciences with imaginative scientific research  
programs, hybridization/integration, new syntheses, novel paradigms/ 
frameworks, and so on, besides providing the cognitive sciences new  
data sources and problems to address.

The presentation and discussion at this workshop may lead to a  
collection of major work in the form of a well edited book to be  
published by a major academic publisher.

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Pascal Boyer
Paul Thagard
Mark Turner

Submission:
For regular oral presentation, please submit a paper of 3-8 pages, in  
the usual CogSci conference format (as specified at:  http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/wsp2010 
  ). Please email the submission to: rsun at rpi dot edu

For short oral or poster presentation, please submit an extended  
abstract of 1 page, in the usual CogSci conference format (as  
specified at: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/wsp2010 ). Please email  
the submission to: rsun at rpi dot edu

Submission Deadline:
February 15, 2010

Workshop Chair:
Ron Sun

Workshop Program Committee:
Ron Sun
Philip Tetlock
Paul Thagard
Paul Bello
Jun Zhang

----------------
References:

	Camerer, C. (2003). Behavioral Game Theory: Experiments on Strategic  
Interaction. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

	DiMaggio, P. (1997). Culture and cognition. Annual Review of  
Sociology 23, 263-288.

	Sun, R. (2006). Cognition and Multi-Agent Interaction: From Cognitive  
Mdoeling to Social Simulation. Cambridge University Press, New York.  
2006.

	Sun, R. (ed.), (2008). The Cambridge Handbook of Computational  
Psychology. Cambridge University Press, New York. 2008.

	Tetlock, P. and Goldgeier, J. (2000). Human nature and world  
politics: Cognition, identity, and influence. International Journal of  
Psychology. 35 (2), 87-96.

	Thagard, P. (1996). Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science. MIT  
Press, Cambridge, MA. 1996.

	Thagard, P. (2006). Hot thought: Mechanisms and Applications of  
Emotional Cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

	Turner, M. (2001). Cognitive Dimensions of Social Science. Oxford  
University Press.


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Professor Ron Sun
Cognitive Science Department
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
110 Eighth Street, Carnegie 302A
Troy, NY 12180, USA

phone: 518-276-3409
fax:   518-276-3017
email: rsun at rpi.edu
web:   http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun
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