The Cognitive Life of Maps

The “mapness of maps”—how maps live in interaction with their users, and what this tells us about what they are and how they work.

In a sense, maps are temporarily alive for those who design, draw, and use them. They have, for the moment, a cognitive life. To grapple with what this means—to ask how maps can be alive, and what kind of life they have—is to explore the core question of what maps are. And this is what Roberto Casati does in The Cognitive Life of Maps, in the process assembling the conceptual tools for understanding why maps have the power they have, why they are so widely used, and how we use (and misuse) them.

Drawing on insights from cognitive science and philosophy of mind, Casati considers the main claims around what maps are and how they work—their specific syntax, peculiar semantics, and pragmatics. He proposes a series of steps that can lead to a precise theory of maps, one that reveals what maps have in common with diagrams, pictures, and texts, and what makes them different. This minimal theory of maps helps us to see maps nested in many cognitive artifacts—clock faces, musical notation, writing, calendars, and numerical series, for instance. It also allows us to tackle the issue of the territorialization of maps—to show how maps can be used to draw specific spatial inferences about territories. From the mechanics of maps used for navigation to the differences and similarities between maps and pictures and models, Casati's ambitious work is a cognitive map in its own right, charting the way to a new understanding of what maps mean.Acknowledgments ix
An Overview 1
1 A Toolbox and the Mechanics 11
2 The Central Features of Maps: Systematicity, Hypergenerativity 41
3 Pictures and Maps, Pictures as Maps, and Some Other Maps 83
4 Maps, Navigation, and Situation: Red Dots, Green Dots 109
5 Maps and Models 133
6 Clockfaces 151
7 Music Notation as Map 167
8 Organizers as Maps 181
9 Concluding Remarks: The Cognitivie Life of Maps 201
Appendix: Maps in the Brain? 213
Notes 217
References 225
Index 239"[A] different and interesting snack for my brain to chew on....it is clear that Casati has a deep respect for the process of making an ordinary map....The Cognitive Life of Maps might not be a required read for cartographers or GIS practitioners, but it may just help a stagnant mapmaker think about their craft in novel and interesting new ways."
—Cartographic Perspectives

"[I]diosyncratic choices are part of the charm of the book....Many readers of The Cognitive Life of Maps are sure to be surprised that it is not quite what one would expect from the title, as the book addresses a much broader range of representations than are traditionally thought of as maps. Although many readers may be surprised, few will be disappointed: they will be delighted."
—Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"The Cognitive Life of Maps provides new insights into philosophical debates on maps and cognitive artifacts. By engaging in an extensive discussion of different examples of maps and their applications, the book aids in developing a philosophy of maps, the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of technology, and cognitive science."
—The Philosophical Quarterly“The Cognitive Life of Maps is a triumph. Casati is a trustworthy and adventurous guide to this most important cognitive terrain. Never dogmatic, but always opinionated, this book is carefully argued and beautifully written. The topic is maps, but really this is a book about our cognitive lives, and as such it makes original and exciting contributions to philosophical and empirical studies of the human mind.”
—Alva Noë, UC Berkeley, author of Action in Perception and The Entanglement: How Art and Philosophy Make Us What We Are

“The Cognitive Life of Maps provides a double model. It is a model of how to bring each of metaphysics, cognitive science, and epistemology to bear on a topic—external maps—with each discipline's contribution illuminating that of the others. It is also a model of presentation: Casati's chatty style leads the reader smoothly into the deepest issues about maps and their cognitive role without any loss of rigor.”
—Christopher Peacocke, Columbia UniversityRoberto Casati is Director of the Jean Nicod Institute and Professor at EHESS (School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) in Paris. He is the coauthor of The Visual World of Shadows, Parts and Places, and Holes and Other Superficialities (all MIT Press).