CFP: A post-cognitivist cognitive science?

Call for Papers: A post-cognitivist cognitive science?

Most researchers in contemporary cognitive sciences take for granted in their research (implicitly or explicitly) a philosophical view that is called “cognitivism”. Research in neuroscience, for instance, seems to take for granted some form of mental representations and to assume a cognitivist theoretical paradigm of human cognition: researchers in neurolinguistics look for the neural correlates of specific linguistic features, that is neural representations of such linguistic features, and so on. While cognitivism understands cognition as a three-phases process of stimulus–information-processing–response, admitting that the processed information consists in mental representations internally manipulated by the subject, post-cognitivism rejects such view and contends that cognition is not based on information-processing; cognition is, instead, the skilful capacity of an organism to successfully deal with its environment. As stated by Heras-Escribano, “in the post-cognitivist approach, cognition is not inner information-processing, but adaptive behavior”.

Post-cognitivism represents nowadays a growing theoretical field that is redefining cognitive sciences. But how does it concretely affect scientific research? Are “mental representations” unavoidable in contemporary cognitive sciences? While the dilemma representationalism/anti-representationalism is an old discussion among philosophers, it still may represent a debated question for contemporary cognitive sciences. For instance, some theorists defend a radical embodied cognitive science that avoids relying on representations, drawing on the concept of “resonance”, while other theorists keep arguing for a main role of representations in cognition. Anyway, there is no evidence so far of structural representations in neuronal activity, which constitutes a concrete difficulty for a defence of representationalism in cognitive science. Yet, mental representations may still play some role in cognition.

Rivista internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia aims to promote discussion on these topics and encourages all interested scholars to submit original papers devoted primarily, if not exclusively, to the following issues and questions:

How may post-cognitivism affect contemporary research in cognitive science?

Are representations unavoidable for cognition?

How would a post-cognitivist cognitive science look like?

Invited authors

Fernando Martínez-Manrique (University of Granada)

Manuel  Heras-Escribano (University of Granada)

Vicente Raja (University of Murcia)

Marco Facchin (University of Antwerp)

Lorena Lobo (Madrid Open University)

Marcin Miłkowski (Polish Academy of Sciences)

Manuscript preparation and submission

Manuscripts should not exceed 11,000 words (including footnotes) and must be submitted through the online submission procedure available on the journal website (www.rifp.it) by April 30th, 2026.

Manuscripts written in English will be considered for publication. An English abstract of max. 200 words and 5 English key-words must be provided. Please, insert the code “Post-cognitivism2026” in the box “Communications to the Editor” in the online submission form (Step 1). Two separate documents should be submitted. The first document must be anonymous and contain only the manuscript and abstract without any identifying information about the author(s). A second document (called the “supplementary file”) must be submitted separately (Step 3) and include pictures, tabs, title, abstract, the whole manuscript as well as the names, affiliations, e-mails, and postal addresses of the author(s).

After a preliminary assessment by the Editorial Board, submissions undergo a double-blind peer review process. For instructions on how to prepare the manuscript, click on the link “How to ensure a blind review” available on the website. The decision will be communicated to the author(s) within 10 weeks after submission. After manuscript acceptance, an authors’ guideline will be provided for copyediting the final version of the manuscript.

For further information, please email Francesco Consiglio ([email protected]), Sara Dellantonio ([email protected]), and Sandro Nannini ([email protected]).

ABOUT THE JORURNAL

Rivista internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia is a peer reviewed, no-fees full open access journal that aims to promote and to develop critical discussions and thorough reflections on the links connecting philosophical and psychological research.

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