A Companion to Cognitive Science: 63 (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) - Softcover

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.

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).