Cognition : beyond the mind-body divide

The Cognition course tried to develop an integrated understanding and explication of (human) cognition as an integrated thematic/area’ of natural science and human science enquiry. We hope to show in this chapter how the course was taught and what emerged out of the process of an attempted integration. The instructors’’ respective histories in mental health sciences (Dhar) and humanities/cultural studies (Niranjana) and our respective departures thereafter to social science questions and natural science and technology questions shaped the nature of the exchange and gave form to the challenges of integration. We also describe here the process of the actual teaching of the course on cognition as an integrated thematic and an exchange over four days (twenty-four hours of class time and a lot more hours in the evening after class with interested students) between the teachers and the students, some from non-metropolitan locations, some first-generation learners, some from non-metropolitan locations, some first-generation learners, some engaged, some disinterested, some secure and confident in their natural science training, a few others critical of natural science. The course that we formulated had a conceptual axis and an interventionary axis. We shall attempt to keep both in dialogue in this chapter.