Minds, Brains, Computers: An Historical Introduction to the Foundations of Cognitive Science

By Denise Dellarosa Cummins; Robert; Cummins

Book Overview

Minds, Brains, Computers serves as both an historical and interdisciplinary introduction to the foundations of cognitive science.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0631212604
• ISBN13: 9780631212607
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Length: 468 Pages
• Weight: 1.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Scientific Study of Cognition Research

The book contains a sampling of original research papers of the histroy of the scientific study of congition. Three sections include research on: Mind as Computer, Mind as Neural Network and Mind as Brain. Each section has well known authors: the two Churchlands, Chomsky, Putnam, Searle and (interestingly) Alan Turing. I have not see such an easy way to quickly find such diverse research on Cognative Science. This research is generally "materialist" (e.g., scientific methods of observations are used to form theories) and a "dualist" (who believes mind is non-physical) will probably not agree with much of this scientific form of Philosophy of Mind. I find this book useful for artificial intelligence research and design of future computers. Also, the ideas in the paper on *engrams* was used in science fiction's "Star Trek" to explain the (fictional) M-5 advanced computer. The book may also be found in the "Linguistics" section of book stores -- note Chomsky and Putnam both have several papers presented here.The main reason why I can not give _five stars_ is because the most recent functional MRI papers are not included (although there are seven pared where MRI is mentioned. Yet, this is a "foundational history" book, not current research. Also, it is heavy in philosophy of Mind (good) and _not just_ pure science observation and explanatory theories only.