Psychology

MIND AS MACHINE

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This is a historical essay, not an encyclopedia: it expresses one person’s view of cognitive science as a whole. It’s driven by my conviction that cognitive science today—and, for that matter, tomorrow—can’t be properly understood without a historical perspective. In that sense, then, my account describes the field as it is now. It does this in a second sense too, for it features various examples of state-of-the-art research, all placed in their historical context.
Another way of describing it is to say that it shows how cognitive scientists have tried to answer myriad puzzling questions about minds and mental capacities. These questions are very familiar, for one doesn’t need a professional licence to raise them. One just has to be intellectually alive. So although this story will be most easily read by cognitive scientists, I hope it will also interest others.
These puzzles are listed at the opening of Chapter 1. They aren’t all about ‘cognition’, or knowledge. Some concern free will, for instance. What is it? Do we have it, or do we merely appear to have it? Under hypnosis, do we lose it? Does any other species have it? If not, why not? What is it about dogs’ or crickets’ minds, or brains, which denies them freedom? Above all, how is human free choice possible? What type of system, whether on Earth or Mars, is capable of freewill?

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Detail Information

Series Title

MIND AS MACHINE

Call Number

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Publisher

USA : Oxford University Press Inc., 2006

Collation

1-1680

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

13: 978–0–19–924144–

Classification

NONE

Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

1st Edtion

Subject(s)

PSYCHOLOGY

Specific Detail Info

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