Kant, cognitive science and contemporary neo-Kantianism

Through nineteenth-century intermediaries, the model of the mind developed by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) has had an enormous influence on contemporary cognitive research. Indeed, Kant could be viewed as the intellectual godfather of cognitive science. In general structure, Kant's model of the mind shaped nineteenth-century empirical psychology (Herbart, Helmholtz and Wundt all viewed themselves as Kantians) and, after a hiatus during which behaviourism reigned supreme (roughly 1910 to 1965), became influential again toward the end of the twentieth century, especially in cognitive science. Kantian elements are central to the models of the mind of thinkers otherwise as different as Sigmund Freud and Jerry Fodor, for example.(1)