Connectionism and the Mind

“Much more than just an update, this is a thorough and exciting re-build of the classic text. Excellent new treatments of modularity, dynamics, artificial life, and cognitive neuroscience locate connectionism at the very heart of contemporary debates. A superb combination of detail, clarity, scope, and enthusiasm.” Andy Clark, University of Sussex

“Connectionism and the Mind is an extraordinarily comprehensive and thoughtful review of connectionism, with particular emphasis on recent developments. This new edition will be a valuable primer to those new to the field. But there is more: Bechtel and Abrahamsen’s trenchant and even-handed analysis of the conceptual issues that are addressed by connectionist models constitute an important original theoretical contribution to cognitive science.” Jeff Elman, University of California at San Diego

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).