What is "cognitivism"

n. 1 (context philosophy English) The view that ethical sentences express propositions and are therefore capable of being true or false. 2 (context arts English) The view that a work of art is valuable if it contributes to knowledge. 3 (context psychology English) The view that mental function can be understood as the internal manipulation of symbols according to a set of rules.

Cognitivism may refer to:

• Cognitivism (ethics), the philosophical view that ethical sentences express propositions, and hence are capable of being true or false
• Cognitivism (psychology), a psychological approach to understanding the mind which argues that mental function can be understood as the 'internal' manipulation of symbols
• Cognitivism (aesthetics) is the view that cognitive psychology can help us better understand art and our response to it
• Anecdotal cognitivism, a psychological methodology for interpreting animal behavior in terms of mental states
• Cognition, the study of the human mind
• Cognitive anthropology

Cognitivism is the meta-ethical view that ethical sentences express propositions and can therefore be true or false (they are truth-apt), which noncognitivists deny. Cognitivism is so broad a thesis that it encompasses (among other views) moral realism (which claims that ethical sentences express propositions about mind-independent facts of the world), moral subjectivism (which claims that ethical sentences express propositions about peoples' attitudes or opinions), and error theory (which claims that ethical sentences express propositions, but that they are all false, whatever their nature).

In psychology, cognitivism is a theoretical framework for understanding the mind that gained credence in the 1950s. The movement was a response to behaviorism, which cognitivists said neglected to explain cognition. Cognitive psychology derived its name from the Latin cognoscere, referring to knowing and information, thus cognitive psychology is an information-processing psychology derived in part from earlier traditions of the investigation of thought and problem solving.

Behaviorists acknowledged the existence of thinking, but identified it as a behavior. Cognitivists argued that the way people think impacts their behavior and therefore cannot be a behavior in and of itself. Cognitivists later argued that thinking is so essential to psychology that the study of thinking should become its own field. However, cognitivists typically presuppose a specific form of mental activity, of the kind advanced by computationalism.

Cognitivism is a methodology for the study of art, particularly audience responses to art, that relies on research in cognitive psychology. Although the term is used more in humanistic disciplines than scientific ones, the methodology is inherently interdisciplinary due to its reliance on both humanistic and scientific research.