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Updated: Dec 20, 2025

Perspectives on Neuroscience
Published on: July 31, 2007
Editors' Review and Introduction: Levels of Explanation in Cognitive Science: From Molecules to Culture
Matteo Colombo1, Markus Knauff2
1Tilburg Center for Logic, Ethics and Philosophy of Science, Tilburg School of Humanities, Tilburg University.
Abstract:
Cognitive science began as a multidisciplinary endeavor to understand how the mind works. Since the beginning, cognitive scientists have been asking questions about the right methodologies and levels of explanation to pursue this goal, and make cognitive science a coherent science of the mind. Key questions include: Is there a privileged level of explanation in cognitive science? How do different levels of explanation fit together, or relate to one another? How should explanations at one level inform or constrain explanations at some other level? Can the different approaches to the mind, brain, and culture be unified? The aim of this issue of topiCS is to provide a platform for discussing different answers to such questions and to facilitate a better understanding between the different strands of thinking about the right levels of explanation in cognitive science.
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