A Companion to Cognitive Science (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) [Paperback]

William Bechtel (Editor), George Graham (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0631218513 | ISBN-13: 978-0631218517

Unmatched in the quality of its world-renowned contributors, this multidisciplinary companion serves as both a course text and a reference book across the broad spectrum of issues of concern to cognitive science.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Unmatched in the quality of its world-renowned contributors, this multidisciplinary Companion serves as both a course text and a reference book across the broad spectrum of issues of concern to cognitive science.

Cognitive science is one of the most exciting intellectual and scientific developments of the second half of the 20th century, integrating insights from psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, philosophy, and other disciplines in an attempt to understand human cognition. It is also a rapidly transforming domain of inquiry.

This Companion presents a deep and varied account of what one needs to know about cognitive science, what it has accomplished, and where it will be going at the start of the 21st century. Beginning with an introduction that maps the narrative history of cognitive science as a whole, the volume goes on to present sixty newly-commissioned essays that together provide an unparalleled survey of all the topical areas, major methods, and stances. There are explanatory overviews of key controversies, detailed discussions of the application of work in cognitive sciences to the real world, and anticipations of future developments.

A Companion to Cognitive Science can be seen as the ultimate resource guide to this fast-moving field of study.

About the Author

William Bechtel is Associate Director of the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program at Washington University in St Louis. He is editor of the journal Philosophical Psychology and the author of numerous books and papers in the philosophy of cognitive science and related subject areas. These include: How to do Things With Logic, with C. Grant Luckhardt, (1994); Discovering Complexity: Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research, with R. C. Richardson, (1993); Connectionism and the Mind: An Introduction to Parallel Processing in Networks, with Adele Abrahamsen, (Blackwell, 1991; second edition 1999), Philosophy of Mind: An overview for Cognitive Science (1988), and Philosophy of Science: An Overview for Cognitive Science (1988).

George Graham is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy, and Professor of Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is the co-author of Philosophy Then and Now, with N. Scott Arnold and T. M. Benditt, (Blackwell, 1998), author of Philosophy of Mind (Blackwell 1993, second edition 1998), and editor of Philosophical Psychopathology, with G. L. Stephens, (1994), and Person to Person, with H. LaFollette, (1989).

Product Details

• Paperback: 816 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (September 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631218513
• ISBN-13: 978-0631218517
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #288,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For the postgraduate, November 19, 2001

By 

Danny Chow (Leeds, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Companion to Cognitive Science (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) (Paperback)

I do agree with Nessander that it is pretty inaccessible for most laymen. However, I do like the concise but still fairly substantial papers in the rest of the companion, since I do know aspects of the field (cognitive science) well.

The book will mostly serve academics, or students at the postgraduate level who require a thorough introduction to specialised areas of cognitive science, but do not have the time to follow up on the literature. I presume that people who read it would have already had at least an undergraduate background in one of the fields covered (AI, psychology, economics etc.)

So while its audience base is limited, it still nonetheless serve a useful purpose to some readers like myself. It makes related topics accessible, without reducing it (the level of discussion that is) to the popular science level of discussion like articles in Scientific American etc. Also, it is not meant to be read from cover to cover.

14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Massive Book on a Massive Subject, November 4, 2000

By 

Nessander - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Companion to Cognitive Science (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) (Paperback)

Cognitive Science is a large and relatively new field. Its subject is how the mind works, using the tools and methods of science. In its early days in the 50's and 60's it dealt primarily with discussions of artificial intelligence, and could safely said to have concerned itself with a host of issues that today seem rather boring and out-of-date. Yet in the past two decades it has experienced a flourishing, brought to the foreground especially by the writings of popular figures such as Steven Pinker of MIT on language and others on neural networks.

This volume is massive, but it has to cover a lot of ground, since cognitive science is now an interdisciplinary field with a vast array of topics. The volume starts with an introduction and historical overview of cognitive science, which takes up 100 pages. This is an interesting introduction.

Unfortunately the remaining portion of this large volume is unsuited for the beginner. The various areas of cognitive science are treated, each in a separate article. This includes AI, neuroscience, language models, and so on, each in a rather short piece (sometimes 7-8 pages) written by an expert on that subject (including figures such as Terrence Deacon, of 'The Symbolic Species', who has an article consisting mainly of rather perplexing diagrams).

The vast range of subjects and the articles' short length does not make for the best combination. What suffers is readability and usability. It is hard to imagine what purpose exactly this volume could serve. The uninitiated will find it almost impossible to jump into - for it is certainly not an introduction, and the articles presume a decent background in the subject matter - whereas the serious student of cognitive science will almost certainly want more meat to chew on in order to get the theories and findings of the respective scientists and fields presented. All this is complicated by the fact that these theories are for the most part very recent and constantly undergoing change, which means that this book could be out of date very shortly (although the earlier, more historical sections on AI and the early days of cognitive science will remain interesting).

In summary: an ambitious work, attractively laid out, but not terribly useful for most, I would imagine.