Integrative biophilosophy

Project management: Dr. Mark-Oliver Casper

Associated: Giuseppe Flavio Artese, M.Sc.

Funding: German Research Foundation (project number: 542329417)

Duration: March 2025 - expected. March 2025

Project description

The project "Philosophy of Situated Cognition" (PoS) addresses a central hurdle of modern cognitive science: the methodological foundation of the so-called 4E approach. This approach understands cognition as an interaction between living beings and their environment. However, critics often use the so-called "Motley Crew Argument", according to which the multitude of interaction factors involved is too confusing to be able to investigate the hypotheses of the 4E approach with scientific precision. In order to eliminate this uncertainty, the project pursues two main strategies.

The first step consists of a systematic inventory of research methods. To date, the methodological "toolbox" of 4E cognition has been fragmented and confusing. The project is therefore creating a comprehensive overview, ranging from neurophenomenology and the analysis of social dynamics to methods of complexity science. It not only catalogs theoretical approaches, but also tests experimental designs for their suitability - such as dual-task studies or dynamic experiments - in order to determine how well they can capture decentralized cognitive systems.

The second strategy aims at an empirical extension through cognitive ethology (behavioral biology). Classical cognitive research is often caught in a dilemma: strictly controlled laboratory experiments ignore complex environmental interactions that are considered constitutive for cognitive phenomena. Behavioral biology offers a solution to this problem, as it investigates behavior under natural conditions and with high ecological validity. The project shows how ethological best practices, such as structural equation modeling, can be used to study cognition. One example is the analysis of risk assessment in animals such as flocking birds, which is not done in isolation but is understood as being produced by a network of variables such as group size, territory and physical condition. By integrating this behavioural science practice, the 4E approach becomes empirically operationalizable and the Motley Crew argument is weakened.

Selected publications

• Casper, M. O. & Artese, G. F. (2023). Situated Cognition Research. Methodological Foundations, Cham: Springer. (link) (Peer-reviewed)
• Casper, M. O. (2023). A Methodological Problem of Choice for 4E Research. In M. O. Casper & G. F. Artese (Eds.), Situated Cognition Research. Methodological Foundations (pp. 17-44). Springer. (Peer-reviewed)
• Casper, M. O. (2019). Social Enactivism. On Situating High-Level Cognitive States and Processes, Berlin/New York: De Gruyter. (link)
• Casper, M. O., & Artese, G. F. (2023). A Methodological Response to the Motley Crew Argument: Explaining Cognitive Phenomena Through Enactivism and Ethology. In J. M. Viejo & M. Sanjuán (Eds.), Life and Mind: New Directions in the Philosophy of Biology and Cognitive Sciences (pp. 27-48). Springer. (link)
• Casper, M. O., & Haueis, P. (2022). Stuck in between. Phenomenology's explanatory dilemma and its role in experimental practice. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 22(7), 1-24 (link)
• Casper, M. O., & Artese, G. F. (2022). Maintaining coherence in the situated cognition debate: what computationalism cannot offer to a future post-cognitivist science. Adaptive Behavior, 30(1), 3-17 (link)

Selected papers

• Casper, M. O. (2025): "Modeling Cognition's Complexity. A Dual Approach to the Motley Crew Argument". Talk at the ISPSM 2025 Annual Conference, October 24th-26th (English)
• Casper, M. O. (2025): "From Motley Crews to Robust Frameworks: Patterning Complexity in Cross-Kingdom Behavioral Science". Talk at the Workshop "Behavior Across the Tree of Life: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges", KU Leuven (Belgium), Institute for Philosophy, September 26th-27th (English)
• Casper, M. O. (2025): "How can Structural Equation Models be applied in 4E context?". Invited talk at the PECoG (Potsdam Embodied Cognition Group) Lab Meeting, University of Potsdam, UFS Cognitive Science, Chair for Cognitive Science (Prof. Martin Fischer), July 25th (English)
• Casper, M. O. (2025): "Modeling Behavioral Complexity. A Dual Approach to the Motley Crew Argument". Talk at the Conference "The Enactive Approach Between Philosophy and Science", Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 03th-05th June (English)
• Casper, M. O., Artese, G. F. (2025): "Cognition at Work: Toward a Hands-on Science of the Mind". Talk at the Conference "Cognitive Tools in Action", University of Studies of Messina (Italy), 28th-30th May (English)
• Casper, M. O. (2025): "The More the Merrier. On Integrating Philosophy of Mind and Behavioral Biology". Invited Talk at the DPZ (Center for Behavioral Biology & Primatology; Germany), University Göttingen (English)