ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights some of the shortcomings of the naturalistic turn in epistemology. It focuses on a particular way of naturalizing epistemology, i.e., active cooperative naturalism, in which philosophers actively engage in scientific inquiry looking for answers to their epistemological questions. This way of naturalizing epistemology is taken as a case of scientific imperialism, where the explanatory scope of a scientific discipline is pursued beyond its original domain. The chapter presents the scientific imperialism framework for understanding and evaluating the appropriateness of such attempts at naturalizing epistemology. It claims that appropriate cases of scientific imperialism should follow an epistemological constraint, advising against the dogmatic commitment of background assumptions. The chapter examines social epistemology as a case study, in which philosophers have developed rational choice models and computer simulation models. It argues that naturalizing epistemology through active cooperation in these cases has an important shortcoming.
