The Nature of Explanation [Paperback]

Kenneth (K. J. W.) Craik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1967

In his brilliant and tragically brief career, Kenneth Craik anticipated certain ideas which since his death in 1945 have found wide acceptance. As one of the first to realise that machines share with the brain certain principles of functioning, Craik was a pioneer in the development of physiological psychology and cybernetics. Craik published only one complete work of any length, this essay on The Nature of Explanation. Here he considers thought as a term for the conscious working of a highly complex machine, viewing the brain as a calculating machine which can model or parallel external events, a process that is the basic feature of thought and explanation. He applies this view to a number of psychological and philosophical problems (such as paradox and illusion) and suggests possible experiments to test his theory. This book is of interest to those concerned with the concepts of brain and mind.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

Kenneth Craik published only one complete work of any length, this essay on The Nature of Explanation. Here he considers thought as a term for the conscious working of a highly complex machine, viewing the brain as a calculating machine which can model or parallel external events.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1st Updated edition (October 1, 1967)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521094453
• ISBN-13: 978-0521094450
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,744,907 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tough Sledding but Worth It, December 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Nature of Explanation (Paperback)

I was very surprised that my library was able to find this book for me. It is a thin, brown tome that was finally found in a university library, and it looks exactly like what it is, a very academic book written by a professor. It's one of those books that I have to reread several times to understand, for several reasons; the big academic words and thoughts Craik favors, being written in the 40s puts it in a somewhat foreign context to me, the presumption of much philosophical knowledge and history, and the general academic tone. However, the main point I was able to take away was his faith in experiment to verify his hypothesis of thought models, along with most everything else in psychology or philosophy, saying they should be no different than science. He devotes much of the book to denouncing flat statements or a priorism.

A high point of the book for me was on page 92 of Chapter 6, Some Consequences of This Hypothesis, where the human finally overshadows the professor through this statement: "Confusion of two similar concepts is a fruitful cause of erroneous thinking. (I am particularly addicted to it, and if I ever conceive any original idea, it will be because I have been abnormally prone to confuse ideas, but have just saved myself by experimental verification, and have thus found remote analogies and relations which others have not considered! Others rarely make these confusions, and proceed by precise analysis.)" Craik did indeed have an original thought, the idea of mental models. One of the reasons I read this book was to see if I could find why this idea had lain dormant until Johnson-Laird revived it in 1983, and the general denseness of this book may be a big reason. But just because Craik was a less than captivating author doesn't detract from his very important place in the history of thought.