Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science [Hardcover]

Paul Thagard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0262201062 | ISBN-13: 978-0262201063 | Edition: First Edition

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence, embracing psychology, philosophy, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. Paul Thagard's accessible, concise, and integrated text presupposes no special preparation in any of these fields.

Thagard systematically describes and evaluates the main computational theories of mental representation that have been advocated by cognitive scientists, including logic, rules, concepts, analogies, images, and connections (neural networks). He considers the major challenges to the computational-representational view of mind and discusses emotions, consciousness, physical and social environments, dynamical systems, and mathematical knowledge.

Teaching cognitive science is difficult, Thagard observes, because students come to this multidisciplinary subject with widely different competencies, backgrounds, and interests. Mind solves this dilemma by making logic comprehensible to psychology students, computer algorithms comprehensible to English students, and philosophical controversies comprehensible to computer science students. Each chapter concludes with helpful summaries, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading.

Mind is ideal for introductory courses on Cognitive Science, and is also useful as a supplement to courses on cognitive psychology, educational psychology, philosophy of mind, and artificial intelligence.


A Bradford Book

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Thagard has written an engaging introduction to cognitive science, which will appeal to students with a wide range of backgrounds. Mind highlights both the core ideas about mental representation that guide the field, and the intellectual challenges that fuel current debates."
—Keith J. Holyoak, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles

About the Author

Paul Thagard is Professor of Philosophy, Psychology, and Computer Science, and Director of the Cognitive Science Program at the University of Waterloo. He is the author of Coherence in Thought and Action (MIT Press, 2000) and Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science (second edition, MIT Press, 2005).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; First Edition edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262201062
• ISBN-13: 978-0262201063
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,948,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Adapted from the Canadian Encyclopedia:

Paul R. Thagard, philosopher (b at Yorkton, Sask, 1950). Paul Thagard received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Saskatchewan (1971), and completed degrees in philosophy at Cambridge University (1977) and the University of Toronto (1977). In 1985 he studied computer science at the University of Michigan (receiving an MSc), where he spent 8 years teaching philosophy at the Dearborn campus before accepting a position as a research psychologist at the University of Princeton (1986). Thagard later joined the University of Waterloo as a professor of philosophy, with a cross appointment to psychology and computer science, and director of the Cognitive Science Program. His considerable body of work (including many books and some 200 articles) has been profoundly influential to the study of human cognition in a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts.

Full article:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0010477

Web site:
http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~pthagard/Biographies/pault.html

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Map of Cognitive Science, November 20, 2001

By 

Steven Dale Upstill (Wellington, New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science (Hardcover)

"Cognitive Science" is a slippery notion, which may be intrinsic to any endeavor (oops, Thagard's Canadian; make that "endeavour") that emerges from many different fields. But Thagard makes an honorable and largely successful stab at giving it some boundaries and some internal structure. If you're intrigued by the idea of mind science and just want a general idea of what the issues, approaches and shortcomings of its current state are, then this book (written for an introductory, probably undergraduate, course) is a fine place to start.