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Philosophy and Prehistory: New Perspectives on Minds, Art, and Culture

Guest editors

Corijn van Mazijk,University of Groningen, Faculty of Philosophy, Oude Boteringestraat, 9712GL Groningen, The Netherlands

c.van.mazijk@rug.nl

Interests: Kant and Post-Kantian Philosophy, Phenomenological Tradition, Cognitive Archaeology

Anton Killin, Bielefeld University, InChangE Program & Departments of Philosophy and Biology, Universitätsstraße 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany

anton.killin@uni-bielefeld.de

Interests: Philosophy of Science (particularly Philosophy of Biology and Archaeology), Cognitive Archaeology, Philosophy and Evolution of Music, Metaphysics and Epistemology

Karenleigh A. Overmann, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Center for Cognitive Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, 1420 Austin Bluffs Pkwy, Colorado Springs CO 80918, USA

koverman@uccs.edu

Interests: Cognitive Archaeology, Material Engagement Theory, 4E Cognition, Numerical Cognition, Early Writing Systems

Submission deadline: October 31, 2023

All submissions undergo a double-anonymous peer review process.

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Summary

Behaviorally modern humans may have emerged 100.000 years ago or longer, and the hominin lineage ancestral to humans has been making and using tools for at least 3.3 million years. Yet philosophers rarely take this lengthy prehistoric existence into account when debating central philosophical concepts like “humanity”, “mind”, “culture”, “art”, or “religion”. Accordingly, they might benefit from taking a closer look at ongoing research in the scientific disciplines that investigate prehistory, particularly cognitive archaeology. At the same time, ongoing debates in these disciplines have significant methodological and conceptual components to them that philosophers might help to address.

This Special Issue is dedicated to exploring two things: first, what contemporary philosophy can contribute to our understanding of prehistoric minds, culture, and art, and second, how debates in the sciences of prehistory might affect philosophical thinking. Our contributions deal with ongoing conceptual and/or methodological issues in cognitive archaeology, or seek to apply various strands of philosophical thinking, including phenomenology, representationalism and computationalism, 4E cognition, material engagement theory, and other frameworks from both continental and analytic philosophy to ongoing debates.

Keywords

Prehistory; cognitive archaeology; epistemology of cognitive archaeology; philosophy of mind and cognition; phenomenology; human social and cultural evolution; behavioral modernity

This Special issue/Collection will bring higher citations and visibility to your paper rather than regular papers and attract more relevant readership due to its scope. The journal is indexed in the Web of Science and currently has an IF of 2.0 and CiteScore of 5.0.

Participating journal

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences is an international and interdisciplinary journal that published papers that address the philosophical and scientific study of cognition and...

Editors

  • Corijn van Mazijk

    Corijn van Mazijk

    Corijn van Mazijk is Assistant Professor at University of Groningen, Faculty of Philosophy. He specializes in 18th-20th century philosophy, in particular Kant’s theoretical philosophy and the German phenomenological tradition. He is author of Perception and Reality in Kant, Husserl, and McDowell (2020, Routledge) as well as a Dutch introduction to the phenomenological tradition (2021, Boom). In more recent work, he explores the use of phenomenology and social intentionality theory in debates on hominin cognitive evolution, in particular regarding symbolic cognition. Email: c.van.mazijk@rug.nl
  • Karenleigh A. Overmann

    Karenleigh A. Overmann

    Karenleigh A. Overmann directs the Center for Cognitive Archaeology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Her research focuses on how societies become numerate and literate by using and modifying material forms over generations of collaborative effort. To date, she has published two books on the role of material devices in numbers, The Material Origin of Numbers (2019, Gorgias Press) and The Materiality of Numbers (2023, Cambridge University Press). With colleagues, she has edited three anthologies on cognitive archaeology, including Squeezing Minds from Stones (2019) Email: koverman@uccs.edu; karenleigh.overmann@keble.oxon.org
  • Anton Killin

    Anton Killin

    Anton Killin is a postdoctoral fellow at Bielefeld University, Germany. He completed his doctorate on the philosophy and evolution of music at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His published research spans topics including the evolution of music and language, philosophy of music, philosophy of cognitive archaeology and biology, metaphysics, and ethnomusicology. With colleagues, he is co-editor of special issues on the intersection of archaeology and philosophy (Topoi) and creativity in art, science, and mind (European Journal of Philosophy of Science) Email: anton.killin@uni-bielefeld.de

Articles

Showing 1-11 of 11 articles

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