De Descartes à la science cognitive cartésienne : les analyses de Timothy van Gelder et de Michael Wheeler

Abstract

This article examines some uses of Descartes in cognitive science. More specifically, it deals with the way orthodox cognitive science comes to be seen as the beneficiary of a Cartesian legacy. How can such an idea as that of a Cartesian cognitive science be rendered intelligible? Focusing on Timothy van Gelder’s and Michael Wheeler’s analyses, the article brings to light the aspects of Descartes’s philosophy which are involved, as well as the intellectual and practical operations modifying Cartesianism and diverting it away from its original early modern environment to the field and context of contemporary cognitive science.

Keywords

• Descartes
• cognitive science
• history of philosophy
• Cartesian picture of mind
• Cartesian psychology
• cognitivism