Metaphysical Explanation in Cognitive Science

Lisa Miracchi (University of Pennsylvania)

Does cognitive science discover metaphysical truths? If so, does it discover identities? Supervenience relations? Grounding relations? Does it provide eliminative reductions? Or, does cognitive science merely discover nomological correlations between mental and non-mental phenomena? I will argue that all of these positions are mistaken. I develop a new account of metaphysical explanation in cognitive science, according to which cognitive science discovers what makes a metaphysical difference to what, but does not weigh in on the nature of this relation. I show how my account places metaphysical explanation squarely within an attractive theory of scientific explanation more generally, apply a formal framework widely used for scientific investigation of causation to the metaphysical case, and provide an example of how the account can clarify debates in philosophy of cognitive science.