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Contemporary Debates in Cognitive Science » (1st Edition)

Book cover image of Contemporary Debates in Cognitive Science by Robert J. Stainton

Authors: Robert J. Stainton
ISBN-13: 9781405113052, ISBN-10: 1405113057
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated
Date Published: May 2006
Edition: 1st Edition

Author Biography: Robert J. Stainton

Robert J. Stainton is Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario. He has published some 40 articles on various topics in linguistics and philosophy, and has authored or edited eight previous books, including Philosophical Perspectives on Language (1996), Knowledge and Mind (2000) and is co-editor of Philosophy and Linguistics (1999).

Book Synopsis

This volume introduces central issues in cognitive science by means of debates on key questions.

The debates are written by renowned experts in the field.

The debates cover the middle ground as well as the extremes

Addresses topics such as the amount of innate knowledge, bounded rationality and the role of perception in action.

Provides valuable overview of the field in a clear and easily comprehensible form.

1	The case for massively modular models of mind	3
2	Is the mind really modular?	22
3	Is the human mind massively modular?	37
4	Irrational nativist exuberance	59
5	The case for linguistic nativism	81
6	On the innateness of language	97
7	Bounded and rational	115
8	Bounded rationality and the enlightenment picture of cognitive virtue	134
9	Cognition needs syntax but not rules	147
10	Phenomena and mechanisms : putting the symbolic, connectionist, and dynamical systems debate in broader perspective	159
11	Consciousness and qualia can be reduced	189
12	Consciousness and qualia cannot be reduced	202
13	Locating meaning in the mind (where it belongs)	219
14	The intentional inexistence of language - but not cars	237
15	Is the aim of perception to provide accurate representations?	259
16	Is the aim of perception to provide accurate representations? : a case for the "no" side	275
17	Can cognition be factorized into internal and external components?	291
18	The internal and external components of cognition	307