Scattered naive theories: why the human mind is isomorphic to the internetweb

This paper constitutes an attempt to derive the epistemological consequence s of what is known in cognitive, developmental, and social psychology on th e nature of naive theories. The process of cognitive development and knowle dge acquisition is such that uncoordinated knowledge must result. There is no process active in long-term memory to harmonize inconsistent parts. Coor dination takes place in working memory (WM), and cognitive psychology has l ong established its extreme exiguity. Units of explanation and domains of c oherence are therefore small. This is, indeed, a limitation of our cognitio n, but it is tenable pragmatically. Naive theories, on any one issue, do no t form, psychologically, cognitively., a natural kind, These theses about h ow our knowledge is acquired, organized, accessed, and used help to bring o ut how one should think about naive theories. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd . All rights reserved.