Against Strong Reductivism in Neuroscience Education: A Three-pronged Argument
Against Strong Reductivism in Neuroscience Education: A Three-pronged Argument

Summary/Abstract: It is becoming increasingly clear that the neurosciences play a significant role in educational research, theory and practice. Neuroscientific researchers working in education have, for the most part, avoided strongly reductivist positions (eliminative materialism, reducibility of mental states to neural states). But there are those that do claim a single vocabulary—a neurophysiological vocabulary—will ultimately replace the current cognitive-scientific (functionalist) one. This paper argues against this happening through a three-pronged argument demonstrating the irreducibility of cognitive science (mental states) to neural states. Along the way, this paper discusses certain research findings in neuroscience education, and the controversies these have generated.

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