What is Cognitive Science?

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of the mind and cognition. It combines various aspects from neuroscience, computer science, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, and other fields, into a comprehensive study on the nature of intelligence. 

Dating all the way back to the ancient Greeks, the desire to understand human intelligence has consistently drawn the attention of some of the greatest thinkers of the time. Philosophers kept asking questions concerning the nature of the mind and knowledge, psychologists were trying to understand the processes of behavior in humans, and linguists attempted to create models describing the mental representation of language. Around the turn of the 20th century, neuroscience began to boom as better technology arrived, and following in the mid 1900’s, the first computers began to emerge.

With these breakthroughs, all these fields began to realize that they were asking the same questions: what is the mind, what is intelligence, how does a brain produce intelligence? In the wake of these questions, the study of cognitive science was formed.

Being such an interdisciplinary field, different experts will probably define cognitive science differently. Some will emphasize the study of human intelligence, others will completely remove the human aspect all together. But at the most basic level, cognitive science tries to make sense of the mind (whether human, non-human, or artificial) in order to understand how such meaningful phenomenon as knowledge, decision-making, and consciousness can arise from practically meaningless units like neurons, transistors, or even beer cans (check out this cool excerpt from Douglas Hofstadter’s book I Am a Strange Loop!).

That being said, cognitive science is a quickly growing field, but the questions it asks are not easy ones. Still, it concerns itself with some fascinating topics that are sure to intrigue anyone interested in minds and intelligence.

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