ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE RISK OF COGNITIVE DORMANCY IN EDUCATION: A PHILOSOPHICAL CRITIQUE OF TOTAL MACHINE DEPENDENCE

Abstract

This paper examines how habitual dependence on artificial intelligence (AI) may affect learners’ capacity for critical thinking, independent reasoning and unaided problem-solving. It calls this potential condition cognitive dormancy. Drawing on Aristotelian virtue epistemology, Kantian theories of autonomy and contemporary philosophy of mind, the paper argues that uncritical adoption of AI can replace rather than support human cognition, thereby undermining important educational aims. It distinguishes cognitive dormancy from cognitive offloading, intellectual laziness and cognitive atrophy, then examines the epistemic status of AI-mediated knowledge, the educational value of productive struggle and the ethics of outsourcing intellectual work to non-conscious systems. The paper addresses two objections: that AI can democratise access to cognitive development, and that AI-assisted thinking extends rather than threatens the mind. It concludes by advocating mindful integration of AI-an approach intended to preserve learners’ cognitive agency while making productive use of AI tools.