Connectionism and the Mind: Parallel Processing, Dynamics, and Evolution in Networks - Hardcover

Bechtel, William; Abrahamsen, Adele

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0631207120 ISBN 13: 9780631207122

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2001

Synopsis

Connectionism and the Mind provides a clear and balanced introduction to connectionist networks and explores theoretical and philosophical implications. Much of this discussion from the first edition has been updated, and three new chapters have been added on the relation of connectionism to recent work on dynamical systems theory, artificial life, and cognitive neuroscience.

Read two of the sample chapters on line:

Connectionism and the Dynamical Approach to Cognition:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/bechtel.pdf

Networks, Robots, and Artificial Life:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/bechtel2.pdf

About this title

About the Author

William Bechtel is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego and Editor of the journal Philosophical Psychology. His publications include Philosophy of Mind (1988), Philosophy of Science (1988), and Discovering Complexity (1993, with Robert Richardson), A Companion to Cognitive Science (with George Graham, Blackwell 1999), Philosophy and the Neurosciences (with Pete Mandik, Jennefer Mundale and Robert S. Stufflebeam, Blackwell 2001).

Adele Abrahamsen is Associate Professor of Psychology and Undergraduate Director of the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology and Linguistics Programs at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of Child Language (1977).

From the Back Cover

Connectionism and the Mind provides a clear and balanced introduction to connectionist networks and explores their theoretical and philosophical implications.

As in the first edition, the first few chapters focus on network architecture and offer an accessible treatment of the equations that govern learning and the propagation of activation, including a glossary for reference. The reader is walked step-by-step through such tasks as memory retrieval and prototype formation. The middle chapters pursue the implications of connectionism's focus on pattern recognition and completion as fundamental to cognition. Some proponents of connectionism have emphasized these functions to the point of rejecting any role for linguistically structured representations and rules, resulting in heated debates with advocates of symbol processing accounts of cognition. The coverage of this controversy has been updated and augmented by a new chapter on modular networks. Finally, three new chapters discuss the relation of connectionism to three emerging research programs: dynamical systems theory, artificial life, and cognitive neuroscience.

As in the first edition, the first few chapters focus on network architecture and offer an accessible treatment of the equations that govern learning and the propagation of activation, including a glossary for reference. The reader is walked step-by-step through such tasks as memory retrieval and prototype formation. The middle chapters pursue the implications of connectionism's focus on pattern recognition and completion as fundamental to cognition. Some proponents of connectionism have emphasized these functions to the point of rejecting any role for linguistically structured representations and rules, resulting in heated debates with advocates of symbol processing accounts of cognition. The coverage of this controversy has been updated and augmented by a new chapter on modular networks. Finally, three new chapters discuss the relation of connectionism to three emerging research programs: dynamical systems theory, artificial life, and cognitive neuroscience.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0631207120
• ISBN 13: 9780631207122
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 424