Cognitive science : a philosophical introduction

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