The Principle of Dynamic Holism: guiding methodology for investigating cognition in non-neuronal organisms

Abstract

Basal cognition investigates cognition working upwards from non-neuronal organisms. Since it is committed to empirically testable hypotheses, a methodological challenge arises: how can experiments avoid using zoo-centric assumptions that ignore the ecological contexts that might elicit cognitively driven behaviour in non-neuronal organisms? To meet this challenge, I articulate the Principle of Dynamic Holism (PDH), a methodological principle for guiding research on non-neuronal cognition. PDH’s relation to holistic research programmes in human-focused cognitive science and psychology is described and then an argument from analogy based on holistic developmental biology is presented. Lastly, two experiments exemplifying the need for PDH are examined.