Time, Representation and Power/Knowledge: Towards a Critique of Cognitive Science as a Knowledge-Producing Practice

This paper builds on the observation that sociological, phenomenological and philosophical critiques of cognitivism have had little impact on the research agenda of Cognitive Science. Instead, alternative critical strategies are suggested based upon understanding cognitive science as a knowledge-producing practice, investigating how it constructs its object of interest (individuals regarded as akin to computational devices) and revealing the practical means by which it comes to represent that object theoretically. Drawing on recent work in the sociology of science and critical anthropology, it is argued that many of the practices of cognitive science can be addressed in terms of how time is constructed and manipulated. This perspective leads to discussions of a variety of issues, including the nature of experimental practice, the status of the concept of representation in cognitive theory, the relationship between knowledge and power, and the prospects for alternative `reflexive' knowledge forms.