Gilbert Harman rezensiert Margaret A. Bodens “Mind as Machine”

Gilbert Harman (Princeton) rezensiert im American Scientist Margaret A. Bodens “Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science”:

“It is fortunate that Mind as Machine is highly readable, particularly because it contains 1,452 pages of text …” that “…weigh more than 7 pounds“:

“The first five chapters present the historical background of the field, delving into such topics as cybernetics and feedback, and discussing important figures such as René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Charles Babbage, Alan Turing and John von Neumann … Boden also goes into some detail about the situation in psychology and biology during the transition from behaviorism to cognitive science, which she characterizes as a revolution. The metaphor she employs is that of cognitive scientists entering the “house of Psychology,” whose lodgers at the time included behaviorists, Freudians, Gestalt psychologists, Piagetians, ethologists and personality theorists.“

In den folgenden 11 Kapiteln geht Boden auf alle wesentlichen Aspekte der Cognitive Science ein, computational psychology, psychology of language, anthropology, artificial intelligence, connectionist neural-nets, virtual-reality systems, computational and cognitive neuroscience, artificial life und so weiter.

“This is, as far as I know, the first full-scale history of cognitive science. … Future histories of the subject will have to build on this one.”

[via 3quarksdaily]