Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book is the first introduction to the new field called cognitive history. The last two decades have seen a noticeable increase in cognitive science studies that has changed the understanding of human thinking. Historians cannot ignore this any more. Cognitive history could be explained as the study of how humans in history used their cognitive abilities in order to understand the world around them and to orient themselves in it, but also how the world outside their bodies affected their way of thinking. In focus for this book is the relation between history and cognition, the human minds interaction with the environment in time and space. It especially discusses certain cognitive abilities in interaction with the environment, which can be studied in the historical sources: evolution, communication, rationality, emotions, and materiality. Cognitive history can give us a deeper understanding of how (not only what) people thought, and the interaction between the human mind and the surrounding world.