Mesocosm and Objective Knowledge

Vollmer, Gerhard

doi:10.1007/978-94-009-7127-1_4

Cited by 50 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…to understand students' understanding; experience is the pivotal process for the development of understanding. This experience takes place in the world of medium dimensions, which Vollmer (1984) calls the mesocosm. We adapted the theoretical framework of conceptual metaphors along with Vollmer's epistemological distinction of micro-, meso-and macrocosm to science education and found that these frameworks can serve as diagnostic tools to predict the degrees of students' difficulties in understanding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Closely related but more basic is the argument for the lack of direct experience of these processes. Vollmer (1984) argues that our sensory system is not able to perceive or process phenomena like these. Based on approaches from evolutionary epistemology, he argues that the principles that underlie our cognitive processes were developed during human evolution.…”

Section: Embodied Conceptions From An Epistemological Perspectivementioning

confidence: 98%

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Understanding Starts in the Mesocosm: Conceptual metaphor as a framework for external representations in science teaching

Niebert

Gropengießer

2015

International Journal of Science Education

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In recent years, researchers have become aware of the experiential grounding of scientific thought. Accordingly, research has shown that metaphorical mappings between experience-based source domains and abstract target domains are omnipresent in everyday and scientific language. The theory of conceptual metaphor explains these findings based on the assumption that understanding is embodied. Embodied understanding arises from recurrent bodily and social experience with our environment. As our perception is adapted to a medium-scale dimension, our embodied conceptions originate from this mesocosmic scale. With respect to this epistemological principle, we distinguish between micro-, meso-and macrocosmic phenomena. We use these insights to analyse how external representations of phenomena in the micro-and macrocosm can foster learning when they (a) address the students' learning demand by affording a mesocosmic experience or (b) assist reflection on embodied conceptions by representing their image schematic structure. We base our considerations on empirical evidence from teaching experiments on phenomena from the microcosm (microbial growth and signal conduction in neurons) and the macrocosm (greenhouse effect and carbon cycle). We discuss how the theory of conceptual metaphor can inform the development of external representations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Embodied Conceptions From An Epistemological Perspectivementioning

confidence: 98%

Understanding Starts in the Mesocosm: Conceptual metaphor as a framework for external representations in science teaching

Niebert

Gropengießer

2015

International Journal of Science Education

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“…This is well recognized by evolutionary epistemology when it affirms that everyday experience is restricted to the mesocosm or the world of everyday perception whereas scientific knowledge includes and transcends it. 29 What it does not say is the nature of this transcending. When we look more closely at the two different worlds, scientific world transcends the everyday world in terms of its exclusive focus on predictive control, whereas it is only one of the features of the practical intentionality involved in everyday world.…”

Section: (I) Intentional Demarcation Of Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing ‘God’: a Contemporary Interpretation of Religion

Karuvelil

2000

The Heythrop Journal

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“…I take this as an endorsement of some version of the EEM program as I have characterized it. See Vollmer (1984) for a discussion of some of the problems allegedly solved by evolutionary epistemology developed along the lines of an EEM program.…”

Section: Lorenz Expresses Similar Sentiments In His 1977 Book Behindmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing evolutionary epistemology

Bradie

1986

Biol Philos

181

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There are two interrelated but distinct programs which go by the name "evolutionary epistemology." One attempts to account for the characteristics of cognitive mechanisms in animals and humans by a straightforward extension of the biological theory of evolution to those aspects or traits of animals which are the biological substrates of cognitive activity, e.g., their brains, sensory systems, motor systems, etc. (EEM program). The other program attempts to account for the evaluation of ideas, scientific theories and culture in general by using models and metaphors drawn from evolutionary biology (EET program). The paper begins by distinguishing the two programs and discussing the relationship between them. The next section addresses the metaphorical and analogical relationship between evolutionary epistemology and evolutionary biology. Section IV treats the question of the locus of the epistemological problem in the light of an evolutionary analysis. The key questions here involve the relationship between evolutionary epistemology and traditional epistemology and the legitimacy of evolutionary epistemology as epistemology. Section V examines the underlying ontological presupposition-and implications of evolutionary epistemology. Finally, section VI, which is merely the sketch of a problem. addresses the parallel between evolutionary epistemology and evolutionary ethics.

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Mesocosm and Objective Knowledge

Cited by 50 publications

References 6 publications

Understanding Starts in the Mesocosm: Conceptual metaphor as a framework for external representations in science teaching

Understanding Starts in the Mesocosm: Conceptual metaphor as a framework for external representations in science teaching

Constructing ‘God’: a Contemporary Interpretation of Religion

Assessing evolutionary epistemology

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