The Cognitive Science of Science. Explanation, Discovery, and Conceptual Change.

Thagard, Paul

ISBN 10: 0262525984 / ISBN 13: 9780262525985

Published by MIT Press Ltd, 2014

About this Item

Num Pages: 384 pages, 37 figures. BIC Classification: JMTK; PSAD. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 148 x 222 x 18. Weight in Grams: 490. . 2014. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780262525985

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Cognitive Science of Science. Explanation, Discovery, and Conceptual Change.
• Publisher: MIT Press Ltd
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262525984
• ISBN 13: 9780262525985
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A cognitive science perspective on scientific development, drawing on philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and computational modeling.

Many disciplines, including philosophy, history, and sociology, have attempted to make sense of how science works. In this book, Paul Thagard examines scientific development from the interdisciplinary perspective of cognitive science. Cognitive science combines insights from researchers in many fields: philosophers analyze historical cases, psychologists carry out behavioral experiments, neuroscientists perform brain scans, and computer modelers write programs that simulate thought processes.

Thagard develops cognitive perspectives on the nature of explanation, mental models, theory choice, and resistance to scientific change, considering disbelief in climate change as a case study. He presents a series of studies that describe the psychological and neural processes that have led to breakthroughs in science, medicine, and technology. He shows how discoveries of new theories and explanations lead to conceptual change, with examples from biology, psychology, and medicine. Finally, he shows how the cognitive science of science can integrate descriptive and normative concerns; and he considers the neural underpinnings of certain scientific concepts.

About the Author

Paul Thagard is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. He is the author of The Cognitive Science of Science (MIT Press, 2012) and many other books.