%A G. Nagarjuna
%J Life and Organicism
%T Tracing the Biological Roots of Knowledge
%X    The essay is a critical review of three possible approaches in the theory of knowledge while  tracing the biological roots of knowledge: empiricist, rationalist and developmentalist approaches. 
Piaget's   genetic   epistemology,   a   developmentalist   approach,   is   one   of   the   first   comprehensive 
treatments on the question of tracing biological roots of knowledge. This developmental approach is 
currently  opposed, without questioning  the biological roots of knowledge, by the more popular 
rationalist approach, championed by Chomsky.   Developmental approaches are generally coherent 
with cybernetic models, of which the theory of autopoiesis proposed by Maturana and Varela made 
a   significant   theoretical   move   in   proposing   an   intimate   connection   between   metabolism   and 
knowledge.   Modular architecture is currently considered more or less an undisputable model for 
both biology as well as cognitive science. By suggesting that modulation of modules is possible by 
motor coordination, a proposal is made to account for higher forms of conscious cognition within 
the   four   distinguishable   layers   of   the   human   mind.   Towards   the   end,   the   problem   of   life   and 
cognition is discussed in the context of the evolution of complex cognitive systems, suggesting the 
unique access of phylogeny during the ontogeny of human beings as a very special case, and how 
the problem cannot be dealt with independent of the evolution of coding systems in nature.

%K epistemology, Piaget, Chomsky, genetic epistemology, biological roots of cognition, knowledge, cognitive development, rationalism, empiricism, constructivism, Fodor, modularity, modulation, mind, cognitive science, autopoiesis
%E N.S. Rangaswamy
%D 2006
%I Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC)
%L cogprints4896

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