This chapter examines two forms of pluralism in philosophy of mind that are suggested by explanatory pluralism in philosophy of science. The first is a radical ontological pluralism suggested by John Dupré. It holds that the explanatory pluralism of the sciences is due to a prior and profligate ontological plurality in nature itself. The second is a view called Cognitive Pluralism. This is the view that theory pluralism is a predictable consequence of our cognitive architecture and of the nature of scientific models, which are partial, domain-specific, and idealized and employ proprietary representational systems. A model-based account of cognition in general, and scientific understanding as a special case, is used to account for theory pluralism.
Keywords: pluralism, radical pluralism, Cognitive Pluralism, ontology, Dupré, Kitcher, representational system, idealization