Connectionism and the Mind: Parallel Processing, Dynamics, and Evolution in Networks

Connectionism and the Mind provides a clear and balanced introduction to connectionist networks and explores theoretical and philosophical implications. Much of this discussion from the first edition has been updated, and three new chapters have been added on the relation of connectionism to recent work on dynamical systems theory, artificial life, and cognitive neuroscience.

Read two of the sample chapters on line:

Connectionism and the Dynamical Approach to Cognition:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/bechtel.pdf

Networks, Robots, and Artificial Life:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/bechtel2.pdf

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).