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Wiktor Rorot

Coming from a background in both cognitive science and philosophy, I’m primarily motivated by the (somewhat radical) perspective that cognition is a biological function that we can track across the phylogenetic history of the animals we ordinarily ascribe it to – building on the ecological and dynamic approaches to mind in philosophy and the emerging research field of basal cognition. My central research interests lie in understanding how cognition is studied across a variety of scientific disciplines, how theoretical concepts shape empirical studies, and what can we do to improve upon our current research practices. This includes also actively encouraging young empirical researchers within neuroscience to reflect upon the theoretical background and implications of their work – which is the goal of the School of Ideas in Neuroscience, a summer school I’ve been co-organizing annually since 2022 (https://nenckiopenlab.org/school-of-ideas/).

Practically speaking, in my work I employ the tools of digital philosophy of science to get a better sense of how researchers use central explanatory and descriptive concepts, and what these concepts actually mean in the scientific practice. In my doctoral thesis I focus on the term “communication” which is routinely used to describe a plethora of biological processes, from signaling pathways within individual cells, all the way up to human linguistic exchanges.

I am a PhD student at the Interdisciplinary Doctoral School, University of Warsaw, where I’m supervised by prof. Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi (Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw) and prof. Marcin Miłkowski (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences). I have previously graduated with a Master’s degree in Cognitive Science and a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the University of Warsaw.