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An important collection of studies providing a fresh and original perspective on the nature of mind, including thoughtful and detailed arguments that explain why the prevailing paradigm - the computational conception of language and mentality - can no longer be sustained. An alternative approach is advanced, inspired by the work of Charles S. Peirce, according to which minds are sign-using (or `semiotic') systems, which in turn generates distinctions between different kinds of minds and overcomes problems that burden more familiar alternatives. Unlike conceptions of minds as machines, this novel approach has obvious evolutionary implications, where differences in semiotic abilities tend to distinguish the species. From this point of view, the scope and limits of computer and AI systems can be more adequately appraised and alternative accounts of consciousness and cognition can be more thoroughly criticised.
Readership: Intermediate and advanced students of computer science, AI, cognitive science, and all students of the philosophy of the mind.
List of contents
Prologue.- 1. Minds and Machines: Behaviorism, Dualism and Beyond.- I: Semiotic Systems.- 2. Primitive Concepts: Habits, Conventions, and Laws.- 3. Signs and Minds: An Introduction to the Theory of Semiotic Systems.- 4. Language and Mentality: Computational, Representational, and Dispositional Conceptions.- II: Computers and Cognition.- 5. Mental Algorithms: Are Minds Computational Systems?.- 6. What Makes Connectionism Different? A Criticial Review of Philosophy and Connectionist Theory.- 7. People are Not Computers: (Most) Thought processes are Not Computational Procedures.- III: Computer Epistemology.- 8. Program Verification: The Very Idea.- 9. Philosophical Aspects of Program Verification.- 10. Philosophy and Computer Science: Reflections on the Program Verification Debate.- Epilogue.- 11. Computer Reliability and Public Policy: Limits of Knowledge of Computer-Based Systems.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.
Summary
An important collection of studies providing a fresh and original perspective on the nature of mind, including thoughtful and detailed arguments that explain why the prevailing paradigm - the computational conception of language and mentality - can no longer be sustained. An alternative approach is advanced, inspired by the work of Charles S. Peirce, according to which minds are sign-using (or `semiotic') systems, which in turn generates distinctions between different kinds of minds and overcomes problems that burden more familiar alternatives. Unlike conceptions of minds as machines, this novel approach has obvious evolutionary implications, where differences in semiotic abilities tend to distinguish the species. From this point of view, the scope and limits of computer and AI systems can be more adequately appraised and alternative accounts of consciousness and cognition can be more thoroughly criticised.
Readership: Intermediate and advanced students of computer science, AI, cognitive science, and all students of the philosophy of the mind.
