Product Description
A groundbreaking, unifying theory of computer science for low-cost, high-quality software


The Cognitive Dynamics of Computer Science represents the culmination of more than thirty years of the author's hands-on experience in software development, which has resulted in a remarkable and sensible philosophy and practice of software development. It provides a groundbreaking ontology of computer science, while describing the processes, methodologies, and constructs needed to build high-quality, large-scale computer software systems on schedule and on budget.

Based on his own experience in developing successful, low-cost software projects, the author makes a persuasive argument for developers to understand the philosophical underpinnings of software. He asserts that software in reality is an abstraction of the human thought system. The author draws from the seminal works of the great German philosophers--Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer--and recasts their theories of human mind and thought to create a unifying theory of computer science, cognitive dynamics, that opens the door to the next generation of computer science and forms the basic architecture for total autonomy.
* Four detailed cases studies effectively demonstrate how philosophy and practice merge to meet the objective of high-quality, low-cost software.
* The Autonomous Cognitive System chapter sets forth a model for a completely autonomous computer system, using the human thought system as the model for functional architecture and the human thought process as the model for the functional data process.
* Although rooted in philosophy, this book is practical, addressing all the key areas that software professionals need to master in order to remain competitive and minimize costs, such as leadership, management, communication, and organization.

This thought-provoking work will change the way students and professionals in computer science and software development conceptualize and perform their work. It provides them with both a philosophy and a set of practical tools to produce high-quality, low-cost software. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Do you want to lead real and large software system developments?
This book is about leading the development of large information systems but it is not traditional and from that comes its value. So many books give you some cookie cutter algorithms for managing software system implementations. Unfortunately when the reader is thrust into a real live "large" implementation management position the first question may be "What do I really do now?" Leading large efforts are vastly different from managing smaller "classroom" size exercises.

The author spends considerable time discussing the philosophical background for the cognitive processes that one needs as the leader and developer of large systems. Large systems get successfully completed partially because they had "leaders" at the head of the effort, not just managers. He discusses the various roles that leaders have to play, not the least of which is managing people. He discusses the topics of cost estimation, architecture, organization, development options, and operations but from the practical point of view of useful heuristics and essential signposts that a seasoned veteran leader should pick up on.

One thing that makes this book so valuable is that the author has been for most of his career serving in the role that is the subject of the book - the leader of large system developments. This is reflected in the numerous non-traditional subjects (for example, the manager as Social Worker, the manager as Axman) the author knows need to be understood.

The final valuable aspect of this book is the collection of four in-depth case studiesthat the author is personally familiar with. Nothing is as powerful a teaching mechanism as a well examined example. These case studies should be thoroughly discussed in any class in which the book is used. They should not be left as "exercises for the reader."

Be prepared for the non traditional nature of the book- no exercises at the end of chapters, no appendix with software or computer based tools. If this is used in a course on software development or software leadership you may want to supplement it with some "cookie cutter" template books on software development.

Be prepared to see the world differently ... a book far beyond software management!
Despite its title this book is an easy and entertaining read for a broad audience. While specifically written from the perspective of management of software projects, the book actually addresses management at large. It makes a concise case showing how dangerous and detrimental it is (to the successful outcome of large scale (software) projects that is, defined by the author as a "quality product on time and on budget") to separate technical leadership/management from personnel leadership/management, as so often mandated by many organizations. The "manager-architect," as termed by the author in his book, is key to success. Consequently not everybody can be up for this task, and only few who dare to try will succeed at it, as evidenced by the disconcerting fact that many "top level managers" manage nothing but major budgetary overruns (be they hidden or not), for which they are "held accountable" by society by being hailed as "America's Best Leaders." This book puts an end to such phoniness and provides especially the inexperienced/naive reader with a skill set to reveal/uncover such mismanagement and the individuals responsible.

The book is a true eye opener for aspiring and "want-to-be" managers alike. Also, having posters on "true leadership" pinned to the office wall does not magically inhale the ability of leadership into the office occupant. Leadership is an ability rather than a skill as clarified by the author. It is just like playing an instrument: it only gets you so far if you do not have it in you and practice every day. Chapter 12 "The Impact of Leadership on Software Development" should be read by any manager (aspiring, "want-to-be", or acting alike), and in particular by those who confuse management with suddenly having power over people. Moreover, management does not and should not mean "tenure" along the lines of "now I have made it, now I can relax" or "now I am in power." Rather the "Old Fritz" (Friedrich II, Prussian King) statement, simple yet true, comes to mind: "I am the first servant of the country" ("Ich bin der erste Diener meines Staates"), and serves as a good guide.

The author puts forth an interesting concept for true autonomy founded on the philosophical considerations of the human mind, upon which the AI-(IF-THEN-ELSE)-community will most likely have to choke. In doing so, the author outlines nicely the profound difference between automation and autonomy, two terms, which are often confused, intermixed, or misunderstood, even by so-called experts in the field.

If management is done right, as exemplified/laid out in this book and practiced by its author in an exemplary fashion, managers would rather have to be pitied because of their huge added responsibility for their people/troops and the projects they manage/lead (in that order!). Special attention should be paid throughout the book and in particular throughout Chapter 12 to the "Machiavellian Prince," as this kind of "leader" unfortunately exists (and not in small numbers!), and, while striving only for personal power and gain, causes a lot of damage to otherwise noble causes.

Dynamite Answers!
The author of this book has deep insights and wisdom for any level of interface with computer science applications. You simply cannot go wrong for putting your weight down on patterns to follow from someone who has had success in the field. The techniques in this book go beyond basic head knowledge, into the live action of software development where the rubber meets the road. Only an experienced person can give these insights. I am very impressed with the advanced mapping, made simple. This book seems to be written for people who are looking to find answers to every day problems in a rapidly moving computer world, without fear.

The Congnitive Dynamics of Computer Science..etc
Mr. deGyurky gives a great overview of his experience at JPL in organizing and developing large, complex, software systems, and delivering them on schedule, on cost. Mr. deGyurky demonstrated that the most important contribution to software management is that of leadership in life, carries over in software development also.

If you are thinking of becoming a manager of a software development project, you should check this book out, and You will be a step ahead of the game!

Software Development and the Hegelian Dialectic
The author has given us a framework for conceptualizing, organizing and developing large, complex, software systems, and delivering them on schedule, on cost.

His approach to software development emphasizes two basic ideas. Unique is his application to the development process of the cognitive philosophies of the great Nineteenth Century German cognitive philosophers, principally Schopenhauer, Kant and Hegel, which De Gyurky has studied for years (- in the original Nineteenth Century High German). De Gurky also emphasizes to an extraordinary degree the active role of personal leadership required of the successful software development manager.

Far from being a purely theoretical work, the book is richly illustrated with pungent examples from De Gyurky's near-incredibly varied experience both in the US military as a Special Forces officer commanding a detachment of Montaignards in the mountains of Vietnam, as an action officer at NATO Headquarters, and as the civilian developer of very large military flight-schedule management systems as well as spacecraft software command and control systems.

All the examples are exquisitely pertinent to the software development process. But in addition, four detailed programmatic examples are presented, together with comments, figures and schedules. The author's application of the principles he developed is wholly consistent and unfailingly pertinent, if sometimes challenging, due to the likely unfamiliarity on the part of the typical software engineering reader with the application of the philosophical concepts.

In fact, the single characteristic of the book which may challenge the typical software developer is the accessibility of some of the concepts. Some of the most powerful concepts discussed, e.g., the dialectical process by which an ill-formed idea becomes an object that reflects the meeting of the minds of the design team, are likely to be unfamiliar. However this process has profound implications for the organization of the design team, its management, team-member responsibilities, and on and on. It might have been helpful if the author had expanded on these key concepts, perhaps in context closer to their original use. It would be demanding on the reader, but probably no more so than parts of the book itself.

This unique contribution is recommended to software developers interested in on-time, on-cost development of large software systems, and willing to invest in the intellectual effort required to understand the author's unique contribution. They will be well rewarded. ... Read more

Product Description
Summarizes and illuminates two decades of research
Gathering important papers by both philosophers and scientists, this collection illuminates the central themes that have arisen during the last two decades of work on the conceptual foundations of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Each volume begins with a comprehensive introduction that places the coverage in a broader perspective and links it with material in the companion volumes. The collection is of interest in many disciplines including computer science, linguistics, biology, information science, psychology, neuroscience, iconography, and philosophy.

Examines initial efforts and the latest controversies
The topics covered range from the bedrock assumptions of the computational approach to understanding the mind, to the more recent debates concerning cognitive architectures, all the way to the latest developments in robotics, artificial life, and dynamical systems theory. The collection first examines the lineage of major research programs, beginning with the basic idea of machine intelligence itself, then focuses on specific aspects of thought and intelligence, highlighting the much-discussed issue of consciousness, the equally important, but less densely researched issue of emotional response, and the more traditionally philosophical topic of language and meaning.

Provides a gamut of perspectives
The editors have included several articles that challenge crucial elements of the familiar research program of cognitive science, as well as important writings whose previous circulation has been limited. Within each volume the papers are organized to reflect a variety of research programs and issues. The substantive introductions that accompany each volume further organize the material and provide readers with a working sense of the issues and the connection between articles. ... Read more

Product Description
Computational modeling plays a central role in cognitive science. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to computational models of human cognition. It covers major approaches and architectures, both neural network and symbolic; major theoretical issues; and specific computational models of a variety of cognitive processes, ranging from low-level (e.g., attention and memory) to higher-level (e.g., language and reasoning). The articles included in the book provide original descriptions of developments in the field. The emphasis is on implemented computational models rather than on mathematical or nonformal approaches, and on modeling empirical data from human subjects. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An interesting and helpful collection of articles
This book could be considered to be a collection of articles on the `computational theory of mind.' Although the articles are somewhat out of date, due to the advances in neuroscience and cognitive science that have occurred since the time of publication of the book, it does serve as a good motivation for the understanding of more recent developments. I did not read all of the articles in the book, and so my review will be confined to the ones that I did.

The article on ACT in chapter 2 is basically a theory of cognition that is based on recursion. Referring to ACT as a "simple theory of complex cognition", John Anderson, the author of the article, wants to simulate the manner in which humans develop recursive programs. The machine that is to simulate this makes use of `production rules,' in its knowledge base, which the author claims is exhaustive enough to produce complex cognition. To produce true machine intelligence, all one has to do is to tune these production rules and make use of them as needed. As the author describes it, the original ACT theory was based on human associative memory, but the one described in this article is called ACT-R, and can simulate adaptive behavior in the presence of a noisy environment. The author describes various simulations using ACT-R, and concludes that it is sensitive to prior information and to information about what is appropriate response to the situation it finds itself in. The author stresses more than once the simplicity of the ACT-R system: it is able to encode data from the environment as declarative knowledge, encode the changes in the environment as procedural knowledge, and encode the statistics of this knowledge use in the environment.

Another highly interesting article is the one by Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky on the application of optimization theory to linguistics. Called `optimality theory' by the authors in their extensive research on the topic, in the article they discuss the relations between optimality in grammar and optimization in neural networks. The authors discuss with great clarity the role that constraints play in the construction of linguistic structures, and the fact that these constraints typically conflict with each other. This conflict between grammatical constraints must thus be managed by a successful grammatical architecture. Optimality theory asserts that these constraints are universal in the sense that they are present in every language. The connection of optimality theory with neural networks arises when one is interested in finding out if the properties of optimality theory can be explained in terms of fundamental principles of cognition. The computational theory of neural networks the authors believe holds some clues on these properties. In order to make the connection with grammatical issues, as abstract as they are, and because neural networks are highly nonlinear dynamical systems, one must find a way of encapsulating the complicated behavior of neural networks. The authors accomplish this by the use of Lyapunov functions, which for reasons of consistency of terminology they call `harmony functions.' For those neural networks admitting a harmony function, the initial activation pattern flows through the network to construct a pattern of activity that maximizes "harmony." Most interestingly, the harmony function for a neural network performs the same function as does the mechanisms needed for well-formed grammar. The patterns of activation are thus a mathematical analog of the structure of linguistic representations. However, the authors are careful to note that not every weighting scheme for the neural network will give a possible human language. It is here where the constraints play an essential role in limiting the possible linguistic patterns and relations.

The article by Keith Holyoak and Paul Thagard discusses the construction of a correspondence between a source analog and of a target. This is the so-called analogical mapping, which is constructed using a collection of structural, semantic, and pragmatic constraints. In the view of the authors, the concept of analogy can be broken down into four components, namely the selection of a source analog, the actual mapping, an analogical inference (transfer), and the actual learning that takes place. The authors omit discussion of the last component in this article. The finding of the correspondences between the two analogs can result in a combinatorial explosion, and so use is made of appropriate constraints. These constraints consist of those that exemplify structural consistency, those of semantic similarity, and lastly of pragmatic centrality. The theory of analogical mapping that the authors propose is governed by these constraints. They discuss the ACME (Analogical Constraint Mapping Engine) algorithm as one that constructs a network of units representing mapping hypotheses and eventually converges to a state that represents the best mapping. They list several applications of ACME, such as radiation problems, attribute mappings, chemical analogies, and the classical `farmer's dilemma' problem. ACME was also able to simulate a number of empirical results related to human analogical reasoning. The analogical mapping they discuss is most powerful in a specific domain however. This domain-specificity is a typical restriction for most of the efforts in learning theory and artificial intelligence.

Good as an Introduction or Reference Book
This book presents the current and mor well-known models of cognition in the area cognitive science.This includes descriptions of both symbolic and connectionist models (e.g. ACT-R, SOAR, ART-MAP, MAC/FAC, etc.), written by the authors who developed them.However, each chapter presents a somewhat condensed version of each model, so some (but not all) of the technical details are ommitted. Overall, the book can function as an extensive introduction to contemporary methods and issues in cognitive modelling, or as a reference book for those more familiar with the field. ... Read more

Product Description
The Vancouver Studies in Cognitive Science series collects papers delivered at a yearly conference hosted by the Cognitive Science Programme of Simon Fraser University as well as papers written especially for each volume.Each volume focuses on a topic drawn from one of the four disciplines that make up cognitive science: philosophy, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and psychology.In this, the first volume in the series, leading exponents and critics of "information-based" theories of cognition and language reflect on the philosophical underpinnings of their respective approaches and identify and explore points of convergence and divergence.Topics covered include: what is information?, information and representation, belief and mental representation, and intrinsic information.Contributors include John Perry, Nicholas Asher, Fred Dretske, Scott Soames, Fred Llandman, Lee R. Brooks, and Ian Pratt. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

nice job
The book moves quickly and leaves me wondering in some spots, but I must say, this has been one of the best books I have read on the topic.It's fun to read.

The Illusion of Always Being Right
Jacques Ninio, who has written on everything from molecular evolution to the debilitating prejudices of scientific research journals, begins his latest work with the sentence: "The illusion of always being right."Of course his book,; but because to be right, in French-avoir raison-means, idiomatically and literally, "to have reason," something gets lost, right from the start, in the translation. (The Science of Illusions, was translated from the 1998 French edition).What gets lost is the double entendre, in French tangled up, of being right as having reason.
Now this may be a small point, and it is, but it illustrates the enormity of Ninio's task, coming to grips with the endlessly fascinating and ever elusive world of illusions.Vladimir Nabokov in his lectures on literature says that the most intriguing things in art as in life always involve an element of deception.Einstein, in many well-known quotes, emphasizes the call of wonder, of the emotion of surprise as a motor promoting the curiosity necessary for the scientific enterprise.Long interested in geometrical deceptions, Ninio's emphasis is on optical illusions-and explanations of them, sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory.Why does the moon sometimes look so large near the horizon?Believe it or not, thick academic books have been devoted to probing the mystery of this illusion alone-and here, offering more than one solution, suggests that the normal view in human evolution, horizontally across the horizon, is filled with visual referents for comparison, while the vertical view up into space is not.Seen (as it usually is not) against the little objects of the landscape, the distant moon is put into a foreign frame, and looks huge.Ninio explores similar visual tricks such as why isolated lines joined in crosses look shorter than their unattached cousins, why stairways look steeper from far away, and that 19th century parlor curiosity, why top hats look longer than they are wide?

Ninio's discussion is focused mostly on optical illusions, with brief excursions into the auditory and tactile realms and a brave if short chapter on stage magic in which he shares his experience of catching a magician on television by slowing down a videotape, and thus exposing the loading of a bird done by quickness.But the popular cliché that "the hand is quicker than the eye" is also (professional magicians know) a form of distraction on the plane of explanation: only a very small minority of tricks are accomplished by quickness, the vast majority being the result of the distraction which magicians call "misdirection."And there are other illusion-steeped topics Ninio doesn't discuss: linear time (which Einstein called a persistent illusion), evolutionary epistemology (e.g., might not the truth ultimately be inimical to survival?), death, consciousness, the metaphoricity of "literal" language (e.g., "concrete"), free will (is it real?), and so on.In Hindu mythology the world is a game, lila, veil, or maya, of phenomena.

Ninio's narrowness allows him to go into detail about specific common misperceptions of geometrical figures, natural and urban landscapes and so on.But what might have happened if the narrator was not so trustworthy but unreliable, as in a novel, or if Ninio had attacked as illusions the egos of his readers with the same scientific thoroughness and creativity he musters in his analyses of optical illusions?I confess to being somewhat disappointed that multiple (and not always exquisitely translated) interpretations are given of minor (and sometimes, at least for me, not even visible) optical illusions when other possible illusions, grander and more foundational, such as those explored by neurology, were not even discussed. In an email from Ninio he blames this on trouble that occurred in transferring the artwork during translation. (Robert Frost defined poetry as that which gets lost in translation!)

And yet this elucidates the nature of illusion itself.Perhaps we can get glimpses of the whole but the fact remains that each and all of us-even all of us together as a parallel processing technologically connected scientific society-is only a part of the system we observe.The well-known mysteries of quantum physics hingein part at least upon the necessity of reintroducing the observer who, for convenience's sake, had long before been removed (at least theoretically) from the system.Newer illusions, such as the mistaken apprehension of purpose, design, or life in thermodynamic systems, can also be understood as the result of the hidden operation of what has been observationally excluded.(So, too, the Monty Hall Paradox, if you know it, can be understood as an illusion of misplaced probabilities due to not accounting for information provided by the moderator assumed to be "outside" the frame of operation.)

"The illusion of always having reason"-Ninio's opening fragment, interpreted literally if not figuratively, intimates our perfectly human inability to keep illusion caged to the stage of entertainment or science.If we do not have reason, we lose the very means to detect sensory illusions.The senses, if they do not always tell the truth, require thought-itself a kind of supersense-to make sense. For it is our reason, our ratiocination or rationality-neurologically identified with the more recently evolved prefrontal cortex-that is responsible for sorting out conflicting perceptual cues.There is one world but many perceptions of it, reflecting the manifold beings which inhabit it.And yet evolutionary expediency allows us, no forces us (unless we are mad or drugged) to conceive of this world as whole despite being formed from data fragments.For example, you only have eyes in front of our head yet your conception of the space around you is not marked by a huge gap corresponding to the back of your head.Incomplete beings, we are "Procrustean" in our perception: we cannot help but fill in the blanks.Such endemic Procrusteanism may be instinctive, as in much perception or, as with Ninio here, consciously scientific in its explication of how perception works.

Fascinating stuff about illusions of all kinds
I have to admit I got hung up looking at the many illustrations and trying out the visual illusions -- but the text deals with all kinds of illusions, many of which you have probably experienced yourself (the train next to you starts moving and you're convinced your own train is moving; crossing your fingers and feeling your nose which has suddenly turned into two; and many many more). The text gets as technical as you want, but the book is a lot of fun for the non-psychologist too!

You Can't Believe Your Eyes
Optical illusions are profound; they indicate that at the most basic level, seeing can lead to believing in things that are not true.Even more deeply and disturbingly, they show that we don't respond to or make judgements on an objective reality "out there," but only upon how our particular neurons process information.From France, _The Science of Illusions_ (Cornell University Press) by Jacques Ninio (translated by Franklin Philip) collects lots of visual illusions, describes auditory and tactile ones, and attempts to make sense of what it all means.There is not deep science in this book, and that is of necessity.You may remember the optical illusion of two parallel lines that are actually the same length, but because of something added to them, one looks definitely longer and one is definitely shorter.There are different reasons that have been proposed for this illusion, most of them complicated, some of them no longer tenable, several far-fetched but as yet unrefuted.It is probably better for us laymen to wonder at the puzzling pictures and let the neuroscientists sort out all the circuitry, and when they get it all down, they can get back to us.

Ninio has indeed covered many sorts of illusions, including magic, but also such things we now take for granted as movies.It used to be that people shown a movie of a train coming at them would scurry out of its way, but we have seen enough movies by now to know that illusion for what it is.Ninio has concentrated on visual illusions because, of course, they can best be shown in a book.But also, as he points out, visual input is supreme, trusted more than other senses.People shown a film of someone saying "ga-ga" while the soundtrack says "ba-ba" will wind up hearing a hybrid "da-da" with their eyes open and "ba-ba" with their eyes closed.Everyone has had the experience of sitting in the old-style movie theater with one speaker behind the screen, and finding that the sound seemed to come from the location on the screen of whatever person or thing was shown making it.A ventriloquist, of course, easily makes visual cues of origin overcome auditory ones.The optical illusions here represent some of the old classics, as well as new ones, because new ones are being invented all the time.One of them was so strong that I believed there was a misprint when an explanation claimed that two parallelograms were the same size, so that I had to measure them, and even after that, I had to copy the page and cut the parallelograms out and compare them that way; they still do not look nearly equal.Other illusions here present obvious but invisible white shapes, or scintillating black spots that are not there, or even circuits that seem to have matter flowing around and around their printed images.This book is a wonderful funhouse.

Grids, afterimages, reference points and adaptation methods
Jacques Ninio's Science Of Illusions is a fascinating and informative survey of the science involved in illusions and their presentation makes for a lively coverage which documents different types of illusions and how they are generated. Grids, afterimages, reference points and adaptation methods are all considered in chapters which are intriguing and filled with scientific insight. ... Read more

Product Description
For all of recorded history prior to the second half of the twentieth century, there has been but one realm in which the cognitive processes of reasoning and problem solving, learning and discovery, language and mathematics took place. The realm of human intellect no longer has an exclusive claim on these cognitive processes--artificial intelligence represents a parallel claim. Wagman compares the two realms, focusing on each of the major components of cognition: logic, reasoning, problem-solving, language, memory, learning, and discovery. He identifies consonant and disparate modes of cognition, and develops a general theory of human and artificial intelligence. ... Read more

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Paying attention is something we are all familiar with and often take for granted, yet the nature of the operations involved in paying attention is one of the most profound mysteries of the brain. This book contains a rich, interdisciplinary collection of articles by some of the pioneers of contemporary research on attention. Central themes include how attention is moved within the visual field; attention's role during visual search, and the inhibition of these search processes; how attentional processing changes as continued practice leads to automatic performance; how visual and auditory attentional processing may be linked; and recent advances in functional neuro-imaging and how they have been used to study the brain's attentional network ... Read more

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This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Spatial Information Theory, COSIT '99, held in Stade, Germany, in August 1999. The 30 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 70 submissions. The book is divided into topical sections on landmarks and navigation, route directions, abstraction and spatial hierarchies, spatial reasoning calculi, ontology of space, visual representation and reasoning, maps and routes, and granularity and qualitative abstraction. ... Read more

Product Description
Psychology is the study of thinking, and cognitive science is the interdisciplinary investigation of mind and intelligence that also includes philosophy, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. In these investigations, many philosophical issues arise concerning methods and central concepts.

The Handbook of Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science contains 16 essays by leading philosophers of science that illuminate the nature of the theories and explanations used in the investigation of minds.

Topics discussed include representation, mechanisms, reduction, perception, consciousness, language, emotions, neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology.

Key Features
- Comprehensive coverage of philosophy of psychology and cognitive science
- Distinguished contributors: leading philosophers in this area
- Contributions closely tied to relevant scientific research ... Read more

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First published in 1977, this is a volume about the scientific study of thinking: its possibility, its part state and its future prospects. The editors have brought together a set of readings which draw on work in cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, psycholinguistics and philosophy. It is not, however, a mechanical or merely routine collection. At the time of publication there had been rapid and important advances in several different disciplines concerned with human thinking; many of these advances seem to be fundamental and convergent, to point towards a genuine cognitive science. The editors have tried to capture this sense of readiness, excitement and impetus in their selection of readings and their presentation of them. There are substantial introductions to each of the seven parts of the book as a whole to connect and explain the material, with the student and general reader particularly in mind. ... Read more

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The book focuses on the question of how and to what extent cognitive semantic approaches can contribute to the new field of the cognitive science of science. The argumentation is based on a series of instructive case studies which are intended to test the prospects and limits of the metascientific application of both holistic and modular cognitive semantics. The case studies show that, while cognitive semantic research is able to solve problems which have traditionally been the domain of the philosophy of science, it also encounters serious limits. The prospects and the limits thus revealed suggest new research topics which in future can be tackled by cognitive semantic approaches to the cognitive science of science. ... Read more

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Historians bound by their singular stories and archaeologists bound by their material evidence donOt typically seek out broad comparative theories of religion. But recently Harvey WhitehouseOs Omodes of religiosityO theory has been attracting many scholars of past religions. Based upon universal features of human cognition, WhitehouseOs theory can provide useful comparisons across cultures and historical periods even when limited cultural data is present. In this groundbreaking volume, scholars of cultures from prehistorical hunter-gatherers to 19th century Scandinavian Lutherans evaluate WhitehouseOs hypothesis that all religions tend toward either an imagistic or a doctrinal mode depending on how they are remembered and transmitted. Theorizing Religions Past provides valuable insights for all historians of religion and especially for those interested in a new cognitive method for studying the past. ... Read more

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The development of cognitive science is one of the most remarkable and fascinating intellectual achievements of the modern era. The quest to understand the mind is as old as recorded human thought; but the progress of modern science has offered new methods and techniques which have revolutionized this enquiry. Oxford University Press now presents a masterful history of cognitive science, told by one of its most eminent practitioners.

Cognitive science is the project of understanding the mind by modeling its workings. Psychology is its heart, but it draws together various adjoining fields of research, including artificial intelligence; neuroscientific study of the brain; philosophical investigation of mind, language, logic, and understanding; computational work on logic and reasoning; linguistic research on grammar, semantics, and communication; and anthropological explorations of human similarities and differences. Each discipline, in its own way, asks what the mind is, what it does, how it works, how it developed - how it is even possible. The key distinguishing characteristic of cognitive science, Boden suggests, compared with older ways of thinking about the mind, is the notion of understanding the mind as a kind of machine. She traces the origins of cognitive science back to Descartes's revolutionary ideas, and follows the story through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the pioneers of psychology and computing appear. Then she guides the reader through the complex interlinked paths along which the study of the mind developed in the twentieth century. Cognitive science, in Boden's broad conception, covers a wide range of aspects of mind: not just 'cognition' in the sense of knowledge or reasoning, but emotion, personality, social communication, and even action. In each area of investigation, Boden introduces the key ideas and the people who developed them.

No one else could tell this story as Boden can: she has been an active participant in cognitive science since the 1960s, and has known many of the key figures personally. Her narrative is written in a lively, swift-moving style, enriched by the personal touch of someone who knows the story at first hand. Her history looks forward as well as back: it is her conviction that cognitive science today--and tomorrow--cannot be properly understood without a historical perspective. Mind as Machine will be a rich resource for anyone working on the mind, in any academic discipline, who wants to know how our understanding of our mental activities and capacities has developed. ... Read more

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This important work brings together international academics from a variety of disciplines to explore the topic of spatial cognition on a 'geographic' scale.It provides an overview of the historical origins of the subject, a description of current debates and suggests directions for future research. ... Read more

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Debate over the nature of science has recently moved from the halls of academia into the public sphere, where it has taken shape as the "science wars." At issue is the question of whether scientific knowledge is objective and universal or socially mediated, whether scientific truths are independent of human values and beliefs. Ronald Giere is a philosopher of science who has been at the forefront of this debate from its inception, and Science without Laws offers a much-needed mediating perspective on an increasingly volatile line of inquiry.

Giere does not question the major findings of modern science: for example, that the universe is expanding or that inheritance is carried by DNA molecules with a double helical structure. But like many critics of modern science, he rejects the widespread notion of science--deriving ultimately from the Enlightenment--as a uniquely rational activity leading to the discovery of universal truths underlying all natural phenomena. In these highly readable essays, Giere argues that it is better to understand scientists as merely constructing more or less abstract models of limited aspects of the world. Such an understanding makes possible a resolution of the issues at stake in the science wars. The critics of science are seen to be correct in rejecting the Enlightenment idea of science, and its defenders are seen to be correct in insisting that science does produce genuine knowledge of the natural world.

Giere is utterly persuasive in arguing that to criticize the Enlightenment ideal is not to criticize science itself, and that to defend science one need not defend the Enlightenment ideal. Science without Laws thus stakes out a middle ground in these debates by showing us how science can be better conceived in other ways. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Interesting insights still not well developed
Giere's "Explaining Science" is meant to give a naturalisticaccount of science. Traditional philosophy of science pursued the projectof the foundation of science. Naturalists maintain that the only purpose ofphilosophy of science is to explain science. The title of Giere's book is,then, programmatic. The book is intended to cover a wide subject andthroughout his sections handle with topics like the naturalization ofphilosophy of science, the scientific realism (where Giere defends a formof constructivistic realism) and scientific judgement (where the authorsuggests the use of bounded rationality models as a framework for theexplanation of the scientific judgement). The book is very ambitious butthe arguments in it are not always well developed and persuasive. Forexample, the use of bounded rationality models of decision in thephilosophy of science can be a very interesting insight, but this requiresa strong analysis of the social mechanisms that mediate the choices of theindividuals (bounded rationality requires an organization). Giere arresthimself too frequently only on the surface of this problems. But ofteninitiators are compelled to give only hints, and this is only the beginningof a beautiful friendship between philosophy of science and(cognitive)science that eventually will lead to the science of science sofrequently proposed.

Interesting insights still not well developed
Giere's "Explaining Science" is meant to give a naturalisticaccount of science. Traditional philosophy of science pursued the projectof the foundation of science. Naturalists maintain that the only purpose ofphilosophy of science is to explain science. The title of Giere's book is,then, programmatic. The book is intended to cover a wide subject andthroughout his sections handle with topics like the naturalization ofphilosophy of science, the scientific realism (where Giere defends a formof constructivistic realism) and scientific judgement (where the authorsuggests the use of bounded rationality models as a framework for theexplanation of the scientific judgement). The book is very ambitious butthe arguments in it are not always well developed and persuasive. Forexample, the use of bounded rationality models of decision in thephilosophy of science can be a very interesting insight, but this requiresa strong analysis of the social mechanisms that mediate the choices of theindividuals (bounded rationality requires an organization). Giere arresthimself too frequently only on the surface of this problems. But ofteninitiators are compelled to give only hints, and this is only the beginningof a beautiful friendship between philosophy of science and(cognitive)science that eventually will lead to the science of science sofrequently proposed.

Interesting insights still not well developed
Giere's "Explaining Science" is meant to give a naturalisticaccount of science. Traditional philosophy of science pursued the projectof the foundation of science. Naturalists maintain that the only purpose ofphilosophy of science is to explain science. The title of Giere's book is,then, programmatic. The book is intended to cover a wide subject andthroughout his sections handle with topics like the naturalization ofphilosophy of science, the scientific realism (where Giere defends a formof constructivistic realism) and scientific judgement (where the authorsuggests the use of bounded rationality models as a framework for theexplanation of the scientific judgement). The book is very ambitious butthe arguments in it are not always well developed and persuasive. Forexample, the use of bounded rationality models of decision in thephilosophy of science can be a very interesting insight, but this requiresa strong analysis of the social mechanisms that mediate the choices of theindividuals (bounded rationality requires an organization). Giere arresthimself too frequently only on the surface of this problems. But ofteninitiators are compelled to give only hints, and this is only the beginningof a beautiful friendship between philosophy of science and science thateventually will lead to the science of science so frequently proposed.

Interesting insights still not well developed
Giere's "Explaining Science" is meant to give a naturalisticaccount of science. Traditional philosophy of science pursued the projectof the foundation of science. Naturalists maintain that the only purpose ofphilosophy of science is to explain science. The title of Giere's book is,then, programmatic. The book is intended to cover a wide subject andthroughout his sections handle with topics like the naturalization ofphilosophy of science, the scientific realism (where Giere defends a formof constructivistic realism) and scientific judgement (where the authorsuggests the use of bounded rationality models as a framework for theexplanation of the scientific judgement). The book is very ambitious butthe arguments in it are not always well developed and persuasive. Forexample, the use of bounded rationality models of decision in thephilosophy of science can be a very interesting insight, but this requiresa strong analysis of the social mechanisms that mediate the choices of theindividuals (bounded rationality requires an organization). Giere arresthimself too frequently only on the surface of this problems. But ofteninitiators are compelled to give only hints, and this is only the beginningof a beautiful friendship between philosophy of science and science thateventually will lead to the science of science so frequently proposed. ... Read more

Product Description
The philosophy of science has lost its self-confidence, witnessthe lack of advanced textbooks in contrast to the abundance ofelementary textbooks. Structures in Science is an advancedtextbook that explicates, updates, accommodates, and integrates thebest insights of logical-empiricism and its main critics. This`neo-classical approach' aims at providing heuristic patterns forresearch. The book introduces four ideal types of research programs(descriptive, explanatory, design, and explicative) and reanimates thedistinction between observational laws and proper theories. Itexplicates various patterns of explanation by subsumption andspecification as well as structures in reductive and other types ofinterlevel research. Its analysis of theory evaluation leads to newcharacterizations of confirmation, empirical progress, andpseudoscience. Partial analogies between progress in nomologicalresearch (i.e. observational, referential, and theoretical truthapproximation, presented in detail in From Instrumentalism toConstructive Realism, 2000) and progress in explicative anddesign research emerge. Finally, special chapters are devoted todesigning research programs, computational philosophy of science, thestructuralist approach to theories, and research ethics. ... Read more