From lay to scientific cognition: the case of pre-evolutionary homologies

Abstract

Continuity views of the relation between lay and scientific cognition hold that the basic cognitive abilities of scientists are not much different from those of laypeople. Recent psychological studies revealed strong candidate examples of continuity, involving lay visual cognition and pre-evolutionary homologies. Here we investigate the possibility that historical naturalists discovered homologies due to their own lay abilities. We will argue that a specific, visuo-cognitive lay ability was indeed likely to have been used to discover some pre-evolutionary homologies. Furthermore, this could have been achieved in several different ways. We end by distinguishing different types of continuity as well as different modes of moving from lay to scientific cognition.