Issues and Problems in the Blending of Cognitive Science, Evolutionary Psychology, and Literary Study

The present issue of Poetics Today brings together seven different writings that in one way or another have to do with the interdisciplinary mix of cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and literary studies. For the sake of discussion I will separate the essays into different kinds based on different qualities, even though all share the qualities to some degree. We have samples of two main kinds of interdisciplinary work, namely metalevel discussions of large issues and working examples of practical interpretation. In the first category we begin with Mark Turner, who gives us a generalized overview of the current situation and its prospects and focuses on one interpretive device, conceptual blending, which he considers to be the primary crossover concept from the realm of cognitive studies into the realm of the humanities. We get from Ellen Spolsky a different overview of the issues. In terms of both evolutionary theory and cognitive psychology, she shows why no absolute divide need exist between empirically based critical approaches and the post-structuralist approaches that still dominate literary studies. From Paul Hernadi we get what might be considered a ground laying of fairly general ideas about "literature's role in the coevolution of human nature and cultures." Reuven Tsur, extrapolating from studies of prosody, makes the case that cultural forms or programs "have solid cognitive foundations and are shaped and constrained by the natural capacities and constraints of the human brain." The remaining essays, though they all make at least some generalized claims, are most notable for giving us models of the other main kind of interdisciplinarity, practical interpretation. Within this group we have examples of the two primary kinds of practical criticism that we are most likely to see. Lisa Zunshine and Francis Steen use concepts from cognitive scientific studies to interpret specific literary texts. Alan Richardson uses what cognitive science now shows us about the mind to look anew at the way older versions of mind—both scientific and folk-psychological—operated in literary texts. Of course other applications are possible, but bringing specific concepts to bear in specific interpretations (as Zunshine and Steen do) and examining historical versions of mind/body to interpret specific texts (as Richardson does) give us the two broadest categories of application.

As respondent I look at these essays as examples of an emerging interdisciplinary field. In my discussion I try to illuminate certain general issues that in my view ought to matter to anyone trying to bring cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and humanistic studies together. For this reason I have created subtitled sections that address certain of these general concerns. First, we consider what we may call interdisciplinary necessity: if we are to have an inter-disciplinarity, then we require some reasonable necessity for bringing the concepts or methods of one discipline into working relation with the concepts or methods of another discipline. Our focus in this respect will be conceptual blending. Second, we consider the issue of the different kinds of truth production involved. Next, we look at how current literary theory and practice can be compared to certain key concepts in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology. Then we discuss two recurring issues in evolutionary psychological explanations of culture: the specter of social Darwinism and the speculativeness of claims. In the fifth section we investigate how arguments based on empirical science of whatever kind can be expected to hold a reasonable significance for a humanities audience. Sixth, we have a look at interdisciplinary necessity from the angle of what we may call the historical study of the mind/brain in literature. Next, we consider some likely extensions of some of the ideas included in this volume. Finally, we consider what I take to be one of the primary difficulties of any blend of an empirical scientific and a humanistic discipline.

In a sense I try to make plain the...