ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an introduction to cognitive science (and cognitive modeling); I shall not however, follow the traditional approach of this discipline, because this seems to be very problematic for several reasons, as discussed in the course of this chapter. Generally speaking, we understand cognitive science as the continuation of traditional epistemology in the context of modern (natural) scientific knowledge (especially of neuroscience, computer science, and cybernetics). In contrast to this approach, traditional cognitive science is dominated in most cases by the methods and concepts of computer science; epistemological or philosophical questions are only of second-order interest if they are interesting at all. This seems to be quite unjustified, because the questions cognitive science is concerned with are very old and have a rich tradition in philosophy and epistemology.
