Abstract
The idea of applying cognitive kind terms and concepts to ‘unconventional’ systems has gained steam. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this idea also has been met with skepticism. There is an implicit worry amongst skeptics that the idea of applying cognitive kind terms and concepts to non-humans, or at least to non-humans that are anatomically quite unlike humans, amounts to a Mere Honorific Conclusion: to say that a system is cognitive is to say it is merely worthy of investigation. In this paper, I use this conclusion as a framing device for exploring how we ought to approach the idea of cognition in unconventional systems, and I explore two avenues for blocking it: unification and generativity.
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