What is Cognitive Science? - Hardcover

Inhaltsangabe

The field of cognitive science is now in its third decade, yet the question remains whether science, which studies the human mind and which draws on disciplines as varied as linguistics, artificial intelligence, philosophy, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience, can exist as a coherent intellectual enterprise. In this analysis, Barbara Von Eckardt lays the foundations for understanding what it means to be a cognitive scientist. She characterizes the basic assumptions that define the cognitive science approach and systematically sorts out issues and controversies surrounding them. Von Eckardt takes issue with those who, like Howard Gardner in "The Mind's New Science", argue that there is no agreed-upon research paradigm and no agreed-upon set of assumptions or methods in cognitive science, and with those who believe that the field should not be so committed. She argues that there is indeed a framework of shared commitments that includes basic questions guiding research, substantive assumptions constraining how those questions are to be answered, and methodological assumptions about how to find those answers. In the first two chapters, Von Eckardt describes Stephen Kosslyn's work on mental imagery as a paradigmatic example of research in cognitive science and considers the domain and the basic questions of cognitive science. The next six chapters focus on the substantive assumptions of cognitive science - in particular, that the human mind is computational and that it is representational. The final chapter shows how these assumptions are used to answer the basic questions of the field and discusses its methodological assumptions (including several controversial assumptions about the role of neuroscience). Von Eckardt concludes by setting out the challenges cognitive science must meet in order to enjoy a viable future.

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