Biologies and Beings: World-Making, Cognition, and the Making of Self

Abstract

In this paper, I explore some of my previous and ongoing research at the intersection of folk biology and cognition, focusing on wider philosophical implications. Specifically, I intend to destabilize previous findings of my own research, interrogating them with data from my more recent work and a perspective of ontology, epistemology, and world-making. In doing so, I aim to inject folk biological data to the discussion of ontology and vice versa. In a sense, I address the question of whether ontology is just another word for culture, pushing for more specific definitions of what we might mean by ontology, culture, and reality.