Teoria della conoscenza e neuroscienze

Theory of knowledge can be understood differently according to two different meanings of knowledge. In a first sense knowledge is understood as the process of cognition, in the second sense it means the result of such cognition (what we know). These two meanings are mirrored in certain different terms used in different languages. A theory of knowledge understood in the second sense (corresponding to "epistemology" in English) has no significant links with the neurosciences (but rather with philosophical disciplines like logic, methodology, semiotics, ontology), whereas it has such links if it is understood in the first sense (corresponding to the English""philosophy of mind"). Indeed already ancient philosophers have recognized the brain as the physical support of the most advanced cognitive processes. Nevertheless it would be wrong to consider the neurosciences as a replacement of philosophy of mind, because the cognitive processes must first be defined philosophically, in order their (bidirectional) correlations with nervous phenomena to be investigated. ©Epistemologia