Vygotsky and Cognitive Science: Language and the Unification of the Social and Computational Mind - Hardcover

Frawley, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674332318 ISBN 13: 9780674332317

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1997

Synopsis

Is a human being a person or a machine? Is the mind a social construction or a formal device? It is both, William Frawley argues, and by bringing together Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of the mind and cognitive science's computational model, he shows how this not only can, but must be.

About this title

About the Author

Frawley William

William Frawley is Professor and Chair of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Delaware, where he is also Director of Cognitive Science.

Review

Professor Frawley's book is a major accomplishment--fascinating, compelling, and accessible. It brings together Vygotskian studies and major segments of cognitive science in a way that many have thought important to do but no one has succeeded in accomplishing. At many points the level and breadth of coverage is breathtaking.

A clear and witty writer, Frawley has a rare ability to explain honestly and carefully the views of scholars that he disagrees with, and an excellent grasp of the literature within philosophy, psychology, and linguistics.

A clear and witty writer, Frawley has a rare ability to explain honestly and carefully the views of scholars that he disagrees with, and an excellent grasp of the literature within philosophy, psychology, and linguistics.

Professor Frawley's book is a major accomplishment--fascinating, compelling, and accessible. It brings together Vygotskian studies and major segments of cognitive science in a way that many have thought important to do but no one has succeeded in accomplishing. At many points the level and breadth of coverage is breathtaking.

Frawley reminds us of the continuing relevance of early Soviet psychology to the understanding of cognitive development and attempts to unite this with modern-day (western) computationalism...[He] begins his quest for unification with a thorough, and frequently masterful survey of the background terrain. The breadth of coverage is impressive...[and his] arguments concerning consciousness and meta-consciousness are compelling...Frawley has presented a coherent position that modern cognitive science cannot ignore.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0674332318
• ISBN 13: 9780674332317
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 341