Exploring the evolution of scientific understanding in medicine, this book delves into how new explanations of disease are formulated and gain acceptance. It examines the impact of emerging scientific evidence on medical diagnosis and the processes that underpin these changes. Paul Thagard presents a novel, integrative approach to studying science, offering insights into the dynamic relationship between scientific discovery and medical practice.
A cognitive science perspective on scientific development, drawing on philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and computational modeling. Many disciplines, including philosophy, history, and sociology, have attempted to make sense of how science works. In this book, Paul Thagard examines scientific development from the interdisciplinary perspective of cognitive science. Cognitive science combines insights from researchers in many fields: philosophers analyze historical cases, psychologists carry out behavioral experiments, neuroscientists perform brain scans, and computer modelers write programs that simulate thought processes. Thagard develops cognitive perspectives on the nature of explanation, mental models, theory choice, and resistance to scientific change, considering disbelief in climate change as a case study. He presents a series of studies that describe the psychological and neural processes that have led to breakthroughs in science, medicine, and technology. He shows how discoveries of new theories and explanations lead to conceptual change, with examples from biology, psychology, and medicine. Finally, he shows how the cognitive science of science can integrate descriptive and normative concerns; and he considers the neural underpinnings of certain scientific concepts.
Recent neuroscience is explored to illustrate its significance in understanding human existence. The book examines how individuals, as biological beings within a physical reality, can discover meaning and value in their lives. Through a compelling narrative, it bridges the gap between scientific insights and philosophical inquiries about life’s purpose.
"People take balance for granted until they start to lose it. This book explains how the brain balances the body and why failures sometimes result in vertigo, nausea, and falls. Paul Thagard breaks new ground by explaining how balance and imbalance generate conscious experiences. Moreover, balance metaphors illuminate all areas of human life, from work/life balance to tipping points in climate change. Economists debate whether budgets should be balanced, and politicians worry about the balance of powers. The traditional visual symbol for the law is the balance scale. People fret over whether they are eating a balanced diet and managing an appropriate work-life balance. Reflective equilibrium is an influential concept in philosophy. What unites the literal and metaphorical uses of balance is that they enable people to make sense of perception and action. Unlike physiological balance, metaphorical balance can be toxic because it obstructs medicine, science, and social understanding.""-- Provided by publisher
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence, encompassing psychology, philosophy, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. Paul Thagard's text is accessible and concise, requiring no prior knowledge in these fields. He systematically describes and evaluates key computational theories of mental representation, including logic, rules, concepts, analogies, images, and neural networks. Thagard addresses significant challenges to the computational-representational view of the mind, exploring emotions, consciousness, physical and social environments, dynamical systems, and mathematical knowledge. He notes the difficulty of teaching cognitive science due to the diverse competencies and backgrounds of students. This text resolves that challenge by making complex topics comprehensible across disciplines—logic for psychology students, algorithms for English students, and philosophical debates for computer science students. Each chapter includes helpful summaries, discussion questions, and further reading suggestions. This work is ideal for introductory courses in Cognitive Science and serves as a valuable supplement for courses in cognitive psychology, educational psychology, philosophy of mind, and artificial intelligence. A Bradford Book.
An expert on mind considers how animals and smart machines measure up to human intelligence. Octopuses can open jars to get food, and chimpanzees can plan for the future. An IBM computer named Watson won on Jeopardy! and Alexa knows our favorite songs. But do animals and smart machines really have intelligence comparable to that of humans? In Bots and Beasts, Paul Thagard looks at how computers ("bots") and animals measure up to the minds of people, offering the first systematic comparison of intelligence across machines, animals, and humans. Thagard explains that human intelligence is more than IQ and encompasses such features as problem solving, decision making, and creativity. He uses a checklist of twenty characteristics of human intelligence to evaluate the smartest machines--including Watson, AlphaZero, virtual assistants, and self-driving cars--and the most intelligent animals--including octopuses, dogs, dolphins, bees, and chimpanzees. Neither a romantic enthusiast for nonhuman intelligence nor a skeptical killjoy, Thagard offers a clear assessment. He discusses hotly debated issues about animal intelligence concerning bacterial consciousness, fish pain, and dog jealousy. He evaluates the plausibility of achieving human-level artificial intelligence and considers ethical and policy issues. A full appreciation of human minds reveals that current bots and beasts fall far short of human capabilities.
Focusing on the cognitive social sciences, this work delves into the intersection of cognitive science and social dynamics. It presents a novel framework for understanding how cognitive processes influence social behavior and vice versa. By integrating insights from various disciplines, the book aims to provide a comprehensive view of human thought and interaction, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing our understanding of complex social phenomena.
How do brains make minds? Paul Thagard's Brain-Mind presents a unified, brain-
based theory of cognition and emotion with applications to the most complex
kinds of thinking, right up to consciousness and creativity. Neural mechanisms
are used to explain mental operations for analogy, action, intention,
language, and the self.
Paul Thagard uses new accounts of brain mechanisms and social interactions to
forge theories of mind, knowledge, reality, morality, justice, meaning, and
the arts. Natural Philosophy brings new methods for analyzing concepts,
understanding values, and achieving coherence. It shows how to unify the
humanities with the cognitive and social sciences.
A leading cognitive scientist and philosopher offers a new framework for
recognizing and countering misleading claims by exploring the ways that
information works—and breaks down.
