Philosophy is the progenitor and an active partner of cognitive science, providing its foundational questions, conceptual frameworks, and critical oversight.

Historical Roots Philosophy laid the groundwork for cognitive science by framing core debates about the mind. Ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle introduced the tension between rationalism (innate knowledge) and empiricism (knowledge from experience), a debate that persists in modern discussions of nature versus nurture. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Descartes formulated the mind-body problem and the mechanistic view of the body, while Immanuel Kant revolutionized the field by proposing that the mind actively structures experience through synthesis and schemata. Kant’s "transcendental method"—inferring unobservable mental mechanisms to explain behavior—remains a core method in cognitive science today.

Conceptual Foundations Modern cognitive science is built on the Computational Theory of Mind (CTM), which treats thinking as information processing over mental representations. This view is deeply indebted to philosophical functionalism, which defines mental states by their causal roles rather than their physical substance. Philosopher Jerry Fodor was instrumental in defining cognitive architecture, proposing the Language of Thought hypothesis and the modularity of mind, which posits that perceptual "input systems" are encapsulated modules distinct from central reasoning processes.

Critical Analysis and Ethics Philosophy critically evaluates the claims of artificial intelligence (AI). John Searle’s famous Chinese Room Argument challenges "Strong AI" by demonstrating that syntactic symbol manipulation (computation) is insufficient for semantic understanding (meaning). This critique echoes in current debates where Large Language Models are described as "stochastic parrots," mimicking linguistic form without genuine comprehension.

New Directions Recently, philosophy has guided the shift toward 4E cognition (Embodied, Embedded, Extended, and Enactive), which moves beyond brain-centric views to understand cognition as an active relation between an organism and its environment. Additionally, philosophers work to integrate diverse scientific explanations—mechanistic, computational, and dynamical—into a cohesive understanding of the mind.