---
date: '2025-12-16'
description: knowing is inseparable from doing
id: Situated cognition
modified: 2026-06-05 15:08:20 GMT-04:00
socials:
  research: '[[hinterland/research/situated-cognition-ethics-research-plan]]'
  wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situated_cognition
tags:
  - pattern
  - r/psychology
title: Situated cognition
created: '2025-12-16'
published: '2025-12-16'
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slug: thoughts/Situated-cognition
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---
Situated cognition says knowing happens inside activity. Brown, Collins, and Duguid’s 1989 target is school knowledge taught away from the practices that make it usable. Their claim is cultural and pedagogical first: concepts acquire meaning through use in the activity.

Situated cognition leaves truth alone and changes the unit of analysis. A proof, a bike fit, and a checklist all use explicit concepts. Competence still depends on what the setting lets the person notice and do.

Heidegger is useful as background because [[library/Being and Time|Dasein]] starts from being-in-the-world. Kant is a separate project. Situated cognition does not provide an argument against objective knowledge.

re Brown, Collins, and Duguid, [“Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning”](https://www.johnseelybrown.com/Situated%20Cognition%20and%20the%20culture%20of%20learning.pdf)