Natalie asked:

It's not so much of a philosophical problem but i am having trouble defining the word 'cognitive' in
terms of philosophy. Please help!

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"Cognitive" comes from the Latin "cognoscere" meaning "to know" or "to be aware of." So, in
philosophy, what have been called "cognitive attitudes" are knowledge, belief, awareness, and
maybe, experience. Philosophers often distinguish between the cognitive meaning of a sentence or a
word, which concerns its implications for knowledge and truth, as contrasted with the emotive
meaning of the term or sentence which concern its emotive implications for the speaker or the hearer.
For instance, the cognitive (sometimes called "descriptive") meaning of the term "dog" would be
something like a middling sized domesticated animal of the genus, "canis" While the emotive
meanings (sometimes called "connotation") would be (in our society) friendly, brave, loyal, etc., (at
least for most people in our society).

Kenneth Stern

Oh, this is a good one! I like this question! Most philosophers will hateyou if you start throwing
around terms like "cognitive" because fields like cognitive science, cognition, and cognitive linguistics
involve what is termed the "naturalization" of various questions in philosophy. Most philosophers
regard that as a kind of betrayal of the philosophical ideal of putting and answering questions through
pure logic and perhaps a little induction, if pressed. Cognition actually involves (whisper) "data", that
awful stuff you have to get by actually investigating the "real" world (yes, scare quotes).

However, I, and a few other contemporary philosophers, usually involved with questions about the
mind and consciousness, believe that there is literally no other way to answer some of the most
persistent questions in philosophy except by using data.

Notable philosophers who agree: Mark Johnson; Alvin Goldman; Paul Churchland; Owen Flanagan;
Fred Dretske... etc. Take a look at Goldman's Readings in Philosophy and Cognitive Science.

I haven't actually answered your question: "Cognitive" involves the processes underlying intellectual
thought (although emotions are beginning to be brought into it) and language. So philosophy which
investigates those is, or shouldbe, cognitively-informed, i.e. informed by data about those processes.

Steven Ravett Brown