What is the status of natural kinds in cognitive science? While philosophers have long been interested in natural kinds in physics, chemistry, and biology, and have recently become interested in human kinds in the social sciences, there is still little work on the nature and status of natural kinds in cognitive science as such. This is surprising, given contemporary debates on the nature of (and in some cases existence of): concepts, working memory, episodic memory, heuristics and biases, reasoning, innateness, emotion, and belief. Are these debates about natural kinds? Should we expect to find natural kinds in the cognitive domain?

This conference aims at bringing together scholars from philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, to advance our understanding of natural kinds in cognitive science by addressing questions such as:

· How plausible is it that there are natural kinds in cognitive science?

· What are the plausible candidates for natural kindhood in neuroscience, psychiatry, and psychology?

· Which contemporary account(s) of natural kinds best capture natural kinds in cognitive science?

· How are natural kinds in cognitive science different from and similar to natural kinds in physics, chemistry, or biology (on the one hand) and human kinds in the social sciences (on the other)?

· What is the relation between natural kinds in cognitive science and other scientific domains?

Call for Extended Abstracts:

In addition to presentations from the above list of speakers, we have reserved two places for early career academics (whose doctoral defense is no earlier than June 27, 2016). Funds are available to partially cover travel and accommodation. We invite submissions in the form of extended abstracts of up to 1000 words to [email protected]. Submissions will be evaluated on the basis of their quality, relevance, and fit with the rest of the program. The conference language is English.

Submission Deadline: March 10, 2019
Notifications: April 1, 2019

Workshop Organizers:

Muhammad Ali Khalidi and Joshua Mugg