Cognitive Science : A Philosophical Introduction

by Rom Harre

• ISBN13: 9780761947479
• ISBN10: 0761947477
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-02-15
• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd

Summary

This is the first major text to offer a truly comprehensive review of cognitive science in its fullest sense. Ranging from artificial intelligence models of neural processes and cognitive psychology to recent discursive and cultural theories, Rom Harr?? offers an original yet accessible integration of the field. At its core, this textbook addresses the question 'How can psychology become a science?'. The answer is based on a clear account of method and explanation in the natural sciences and how they can be adapted to psychological research. Rom Harr?? has used his experience of both the natural and the human sciences to create a text on which exciting and insightful courses can be built in many ways. The text is based on the idea that underlying the long history of attempts to create a scientific psychology there are many unexamined presuppositions that must be brought to light. Whether describing language, categorization, memory, the brain or connectionism the book always links our intuitions about how we think, feel and act in the contexts of everyday life to the latest accounts of the neural tools with which we accomplish the cognitive tasks demanded of us. Computational and biological models are used to link the discursive analysis of everyday cognition to the necessary activities of the brain and nervous system. Fluently written and well structured, this is an ideal text for students who want to gain a comprehensive view of the current state of the art with its seeming divergence into studies of meanings and studies of neurology. The book is divided into four basic modules, with suggestions for three lectures in each. The plan is related to the overall pattern of the semester programme. The reader is guided with helpful learning points, sections of study questions for review, and key readings for each chapter. Cognitive Science: A Philosophical Introduction, with its remarkable sweep of themes, past and present, truly introduces 'the science of the mind' for a new generation of psychology students. Cognitive Science should be indispensable reading for students at all levels taking courses in cognitive science and cognitive psychology, and useful additional course reading in other areas such as social psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy of the mind and linguistics. Key Points First major textbook to provide a link between computational, philosophical and biological models in an accessible format for students. Presents a new vision of psychology as a scientific discipline. A? Breadth of coverage - ranging from artificial intelligence, to key themes & theories in cognitive science (past and present) - language, memory, the brain and behaviour - to recent discursive and cultural theories. A? Plenty of student features to help the student and tutor including helpful learning points, study and essay questions and key readings at the end of every chapter.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	xiv
List of abbreviations	xv
Preface	xvii
Acknowledgements	xviii
How to use this book in the classroom	xix
part one The nature and methods of science	1	(58)
A science for psychology	5	(14)
What is the domain of cognitive science?	5	(3)
What makes a study program scientific?	8	(1)
Learning Point: What is Science?	9	(1)
Philosophy in the context of science	9	(2)
Some other terms for presuppositions	11	(1)
Learning Point: What is Philosophy?	12	(1)
Ontology: presuppositions as to what there is	12	(3)
Learning Point: Ontology	15	(1)
Science, philosophy and psychology in history	15	(1)
The project of a scientific psychology in full	16	(1)
Conclusion	17	(2)
The natural sciences	19	(16)
The world of the natural sciences	20	(3)
Learning Point: The World of the Natural Sciences	23	(1)
Rival interpretations of science	24	(5)
Learning Point: Positivism and Realism	29	(1)
Indirect experiments: testing hypotheses about the unobservable	30	(2)
Learning Point: Experimenting in Region Three	32	(1)
Conclusion	33	(2)
Understanding scientific method	35	(24)
Describing and Classifying	36	(6)
The role of concepts in classification	36	(1)
Hierarchical classification systems	37	(1)
The bases of type distinctions	38	(3)
Learning Point: 1: Describing and classifying	41	(1)
Explaining	42	(17)
Models	42	(2)
Analytical and explanatory uses of models	44	(4)
The cognitive foundations of model building	48	(2)
Assessing the worth of models	50	(1)
Experimental apparatus as model worlds	51	(1)
Further uses of modeling	52	(2)
Learning Point: 2: Model making	54	(1)
Conclusion	54	(5)
part two The search for a science of human behavior	59	(78)
Psychology as the science of mental substances	65	(14)
Descartes's psychology	65	(3)
The psychology of John Locke	68	(3)
The realist psychology of David Hartley	71	(1)
The positivist psychology of David Hume	72	(1)
Causes and agents: the transcendental solution	73	(2)
Learning Point: The Search for a Scientific Psychology 1: Mental substances	75	(1)
Conclusion	76	(3)
Psychology as a science of material substances	79	(24)
Ontological materialism	81	(2)
Methodological materialism	83	(2)
Conceptual materialism	85	(6)
The arguments for eliminative materialism	86	(1)
The arguments against eliminative materialism	87	(2)
Psychology cannot do without the person	89	(1)
Learning Point: The Search for a Scientific Psychology 2: Materialism	90	(1)
Psychology as a branch of biology	91	(12)
Aristotelian beginnings: psychology as the science of goal-directed action	92	(3)
The modern Aristotelians	95	(1)
Evolutionary psychology	96	(4)
Learning Point: The Search for a Scientific Psychology 3: Biologism	100	(1)
Conclusion	101	(2)
The beginnings of cognitive science	103	(34)
The First Cognitive Revolution	105	(11)
Early attempts at devising a cognitive machine	106	(3)
Learning Point: Sources of the First Cognitive Revolution	109	(1)
The second attempt: computing machines	109	(3)
Using artificial intelligence models in psychology	112	(1)
Sources of artificial intelligence models	113	(2)
Learning Point: The Projects of Artificial Intelligence	115	(1)
Strengths and weaknesses of the First Cognitive Revolution	116	(21)
The troubling questions	117	(1)
The representation of intentionality	118	(5)
Global aspects of linguistic meaning	123	(1)
Learning Point: The Problem of Intentionality	124	(1)
The representation of normativity	125	(1)
Problems with a rule-based psychology	125	(4)
Learning Point: Can Normativity be Represented?	129	(1)
Conclusion	130	(7)
part three Towards a scientific psychology	137	(78)
Grammar and cognition	141	(28)
Symbols and their meanings	142	(1)
The central role of language	143	(3)
The domain of psychology: the act-action distinction	146	(1)
The grammars of everyday life	147	(3)
The intentional stance	150	(1)
Skill	151	(1)
Meta-discourses or `human sciences'	152	(2)
Positioning: the moral dimension	154	(1)
The ontology of persons	154	(2)
`Mind-body' ties: three links between P, O and M discourses	156	(6)
Psychology as a hybrid science	162	(3)
Learning Point: Discursive Psychology: The Presuppositions	165	(1)
Conclusion	166	(3)
Cognitive science: the analytical phase	169	(20)
Cognitive tasks and symbolic tools	169	(1)
Reinterpreting experiments	170	(6)
Two worked examples	176	(5)
Grammar as a research tool	181	(5)
Learning Point: From a Causal to a Normative Metaphysics	186	(1)
Conclusion	187	(2)
Connectionism and the brain	189	(26)
What is a connectionist system?	191	(12)
Neurons and nets	191	(6)
Model nets as research tools	197	(3)
Strokes and other lesions	200	(1)
Problems with the brain structure :: model net analogy	200	(2)
Learning Point: Connectionism and Parallel Distributed Processing	202	(1)
The brain as an organ for performing cognitive tasks	203	(12)
The anatomy of the human brain	204	(1)
The physiology of the human brain	204	(2)
Negative correlations: aphasias and brain damage	206	(1)
Positive correlations: scanning technology	207	(2)
Learning Point: Artificial Nets and Real Brains	209	(1)
Conclusion	210	(5)
part four Cognitive science in action	215	(88)
The Memory machine	221	(34)
The vernacular vocabulary of remembering	222	(4)
What can be remembered?	223	(2)
The problem of authentication	225	(1)
Remembering as a topic for cognitive psychology	226	(6)
Neisser's paradox and the Ebbinghaus paradigm	227	(2)
The problem of the workings of memory machines	229	(1)
Generic models: representation and retention	229	(1)
The research program summarized	230	(2)
Cognitive psychology of remembering, phase one: a descriptive taxonomy	232	(6)
Collective remembering	233	(1)
Individual remembering	234	(3)
Learning Point: Remembering: Vocabularies and Classifications	237	(1)
Cognitive psychology of remembering, phase two: explanation	238	(17)
Some important metaphors	238	(1)
Models for the psychology of remembering	239	(5)
Transforming a cognitive model into an artificial intelligence simulation	244	(2)
Worked example: the hippocampus	246	(5)
Learning Point: Models for Remembering	251	(1)
Conclusion	252	(3)
The psychology of classifying	255	(22)
The Aristotelian logic of classification	255	(3)
The expression and representation of bodies of knowledge	258	(2)
Learning Point: Basic Principles of Knowledge Representation	260	(1)
Alternative conceptions of a knowledge base	261	(3)
Problems common to all approaches to knowledge engineering	264	(1)
Limitations of the project so far	265	(1)
Cognitive psychology of classifying: take one	266	(2)
Cognitive psychology of classifying: take two	268	(2)
Learning Point: Alternative Methods of Classification	270	(1)
Connectionism: the way forward?	270	(1)
Exercise: extracting a prototype	271	(1)
Disadvantages with connectionist models	272	(1)
Neuropsychology of classifying	273	(1)
Learning Point: Connectionist Models of Classifying	274	(1)
Conclusion	274	(3)
Cognitive disorders	277	(26)
Presuppositions of psychiatry and clinical psychology	278	(9)
The expansion of the domain of psychopathology	280	(2)
Bizarre thought patterns and disordered brains	282	(1)
The presupposition of psychotherapy	283	(2)
Classifying phenomena and modeling the unobservable	285	(1)
Learning Point: Sources of Concepts of Psychopathology: Deviance and Unacceptability	286	(1)
Defects of discourse	287	(4)
Non-standard story lines using standard syntax	287	(1)
Non-standard syntax and standard narrative conventions	288	(3)
Learning Point: Psychopathology as Improper Narration	291	(1)
Psychopathology and brain malfunction	291	(12)
The insertion of an old trouble into the Hybrid Psychology framework	292	(2)
The creation of a new mental illness: the case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder	294	(2)
Contesting a grammar: the case of chronic fatigue syndrome	296	(1)
Learning Point: The Transformation, Invention and Contesting of Mental Illnesses	297	(1)
Conclusion	298	(5)
Epilog	303	(2)
References	305	(6)
Name index	311	(1)
Subject index	312