Computation, Cognition, and Pylyshyn (The MIT Press) - Hardcover

A collection of cutting-edge work on cognition and a celebration of a foundational figure in the field. Classical cognitive science has found itself in something of a pickle; a pickle that's so deep (if I may mix a metaphor) that most of its practitioners haven't so much as noticed that they are in it. What's so good about Pylyshyn-in particular what's so good about Pylyshyn's recent work-is that maybe, just possibly maybe, it shows us the way out of the pickle we're in-from the introduction by Jerry FodorZenon Pylyshyn is a towering figure in cognitive science; his book Computation and Cognition (MIT Press, 1984) is a foundational presentation of the relationship between cognition and computation. His recent work on vision and its preconceptual mechanism has been influential and controversial. In this book, leading cognitive scientists address major topics in Pylyshyn's work and discuss his contributions to the cognitive sciences. Contributors discuss vision, considering such topics as multiple-object tracking, action, molecular and cellular cognition, and inhibition of return; and foundational issues, including connectionism, modularity, the evolution of the perception of number, computation, cognitive architecture, location, and visual sensory representations of objects. Contributors John Bickle, Darlene A. Brodeur, Andy Brook, Austen Clark, Michael R. W. Dawson, Jerry Fodor, Mel Goodale, Stevan Harnad, Heather Hollinsworth, Lisa N. Jefferies, Brian Keane, Zenon W. Pylyshyn, Charles Reiss, Brian J. Scholl, Lana M. Trick, Claudia Uller, Marla Wolf, Richard D. Wright

Don Dedrick is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy (cross-appointed to Psychology, Neuroscience, and Applied Cognitive Science) at the University of Guelph, Ontario. Lana Trick is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Guelph. Jerry A. Fodor is State of New Jersey Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He is the author of The Mind Doesn't Work That Way: The Scope and Limits of Computational Psychology (MIT Press) and other books. Zenon W. Pylyshyn is Board of Governors Professor of Cognitive Science at Rutgers University. He is the author of Things and Places: How the Mind Connects with the World (MIT Press) and other books. Brian J. Scholl is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University and Director of the Yale Perception and Cognition Laboratory. Lana Trick is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Guelph. Melvyn A. Goodale is a university researcher in psychology at the University of Western Ontario. John Bickle is Professor and Head of the Mississippi State University Philosophy and Religion Department. Charles Reiss is Professor in the Program in Linguistics at Concordia University, Montreal. He is the coauthor of I-Language: An Introduction to Linguistics as Cognitive Science and The Phonological Enterprise. Andrew Brook is Professor of Philosophy, Director of Interdisciplinary Studies, and Chair of the Cognitive Science Program at Carleton University, Ottawa.