LE IDEE SCIENTIFICHE COME PROTESI DELLA MENTE

Abstract

The reflection on the nature of science and the investigation concerning the modalities of its development in a society, are at the center of the volume of Carlo Cattaneo Psicologia delle menti associate (Psychology of the associated minds). Introduced by Carlo Lacaita and organized by Barbara Boneschi, the work derivesabove all from the mosaic of lectures, linked by a unitary vision, held by the author atthe Istituto Lombardo between 1859 and 1866. This series of readings were an important moment of his intellectual elaboration, a space of investigation that went to theheart of his cultural interests, the scientific knowledge that involved all his voraciouscognitive tension. In this comment, particular emphasis will be given to two particularaspects of Cattaneo’s scientific psychology. On the one hand, the idea of scientificknowledge as a collective enterprise, therefore as a collaborative synthesis of several associated minds; on the other hand, the concept of science as a cognitive device thatmakes it possible to amplify the possibility of exploration and perception of the world.