The objective of the Fyssen Foundation is to encourage "all forms of scientific inquiry into cognitive mechanisms, including thought and reasoning, that underly animal and human behavior; their biological and cultural bases, and phylogenetic and ontogenetic development".
The Foundation aims to support research which will lead to a more rigorous and precise approach to this fundamental domain, calling upon such disciplines as ethology, paleontology, archaeology, anthropology, psychology, logic and the neurosciences.