Stigmergic epistemology, stigmergic cognition

Leslie Marsh and Christian Onof

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: To know is to cognize, to cognize is to be a culturally bounded, rationality-bounded and environmentally located agent. Knowledge and cognition are thus dual aspects of human sociality. If social epistemology has the formation, acquisition, mediation, transmission and dissemination of knowledge in complex communities of knowers as its subject matter, then its third party character is essentially stigmergic. In its most generic formulation, stigmergy is the phenomenon of indirect communication mediated by modifications of the environment. Extending this notion one might conceive of social stigmergy as the extra-cranial analog of an artificial neural network providing epistemic structure. This paper recommends a stigmergic framework for social epistemology to account for the supposed tension between individual action, wants and beliefs and the social corpora. We also propose that the so-called ‘‘extended mind’’ thesis offers the requisite stigmergic cognitive analog to stigmergic knowledge. Stigmergy as a theory of interaction within complex systems theory is illustrated through an example that runs on a particle swarm optimization algorithm.

Keywords: Social epistemology; Extended mind; Social cognition; Particle swarm optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B53 D83 D87 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-06-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp and nep-knm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published in Cognitive Systems Research issues 1-2.Vol. 9(2008): pp. 136-149

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:10004

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