Neuropragmatism and the Culture of Inquiry: Moving Beyond Creeping Cartesianism

Recent work in psychology by Daniel Kahneman on system 1 and system 2, recent interest in revitalizing representationalism in cognitive science, and recent use of the concept of information in the science of consciousness all suffer from a creeping Cartesianism that blocks the road to inquiry. Neuropragmatism offers a way through this hurdle by emphasizing the contextual situation in which inquiry develops. The neuropragmatic sketch of experience, habit, mind, consciousness, and inquiry provided here is used as a framework to reconstruct the important data we consider from psychology, cognitive science, and the science of consciousness. The shortcomings of these empirical studies are overcome by system 3, which is the dual-process of enculturation that situates systems 1 and 2 and provides the means of their further transformation through the work of creative intellectuals, whose task it is to imagine and discover new possibilities for lived experience. The introduction of system 3 is a philosophical hypothesis intended to effect further philosophical discussion and scientific consideration.