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

1118725236
The Cognitive Science of Science: Explanation, Discovery, and Conceptual Change
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.

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

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

by Paul Thagard
The Cognitive Science of Science: Explanation, Discovery, and Conceptual Change

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

by Paul Thagard

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Overview

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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780262300971
Publisher: MIT Press
Publication date: 04/06/2012
Series: The MIT Press
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format: eBook
Pages: 378
File size: 2 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

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.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

I Introduction 1

1 What Is the Cognitive Science of Science? 3

II Explanation and Justification 19

2 Why Explanation Matters 21

3 Models of Scientific Explanation Abninder Litt 25

4 How Brains Make Mental Models 47

5 Changing Minds about Climate Change: Belief Revision, Coherence, and Emotion Scott Findlay 61

6 Coherence, Truth, and the Development of Scientific Knowledge 81

III Discovery and Creativity 101

7 Why Discovery Matters 103

8 The Aha! Experience: Creativity through Emergent Binding in Neural Networks Terrence C. Stewart 107

9 Creative Combination of Representations: Scientific Discovery and Technological Invention 141

10 Creativity in Computer Science Daniel Saunders 159

11 Patterns of Medical Discovery 175

IV Conceptual Change 193

12 Why Conceptual Change Matters 195

13 Conceptual Change in the History of Science: Life, Mind, and Disease 199

14 Getting to Darwin: Obstacles to Accepting Evolution by Natural Selection Scott Findlay 219

15 Acupuncture, Incommensurability, and Conceptual Change Jing Zhu 235

16 Conceptual Change in Medicine: Explanations of Mental Illness from Demons to Epigenetics Scott Findlay 261

V New Directions 281

17 Values in Science: Cognitive-Affective Maps 283

18 Scientific Concepts as Semantic Pointers 303

References 323

Index 355

What People are Saying About This

Ronald N. Giere

Paul Thagard was among the first philosophers of science to apply the resources of the cognitive sciences to the study of science itself. This collection of his recent articles provides a lucid and timely introduction not only to his own approach to the subject, but also to the cognitive study of science as a whole.

Lindley Darden

This collection brings together Paul Thagard's latest interdisciplinary insights into the workings of science, drawing on his extensive work in historical, philosophical, cognitive, and computational approaches. The broad range of topics here provides an agenda and new directions for future work in the cognitive science of science, especially on the oft-neglected topic of scientific discovery. Anyone taking up the topic will want to see the far reach of Thagard's account of conceptual combination.

Endorsement

The cognitive science of science is a rapidly expanding area of science studies and Paul Thagard is one of its pioneers. A collection and expansion of recent ground-breaking work on scientific creativity and discovery conducted by Thagard and his collaborators is thus timely and important. The analyses presented lie at the interface of AI, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy and provide novel ways of thinking about discovery and creativity for cognitive scientists and science studies researchers, as well as for those interested in creativity more generally.

Nancy Nersessian, Regents' Professor of Cognitive Science, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

From the Publisher

Paul Thagard was among the first philosophers of science to apply the resources of the cognitive sciences to the study of science itself. This collection of his recent articles provides a lucid and timely introduction not only to his own approach to the subject, but also to the cognitive study of science as a whole.

Ronald N. Giere, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Minnesota

This collection brings together Paul Thagard's latest interdisciplinary insights into the workings of science, drawing on his extensive work in historical, philosophical, cognitive, and computational approaches. The broad range of topics here provides an agenda and new directions for future work in the cognitive science of science, especially on the oft-neglected topic of scientific discovery. Anyone taking up the topic will want to see the far reach of Thagard's account of conceptual combination.

Lindley Darden, University of Maryland, College Park

The cognitive science of science is a rapidly expanding area of science studies and Paul Thagard is one of its pioneers. A collection and expansion of recent ground-breaking work on scientific creativity and discovery conducted by Thagard and his collaborators is thus timely and important. The analyses presented lie at the interface of AI, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy and provide novel ways of thinking about discovery and creativity for cognitive scientists and science studies researchers, as well as for those interested in creativity more generally.

Nancy Nersessian, Regents' Professor of Cognitive Science, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Nancy Nersessian

The cognitive science of science is a rapidly expanding area of science studies and Paul Thagard is one of its pioneers. A collection and expansion of recent ground-breaking work on scientific creativity and discovery conducted by Thagard and his collaborators is thus timely and important. The analyses presented lie at the interface of AI, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy and provide novel ways of thinking about discovery and creativity for cognitive scientists and science studies researchers, as well as for those interested in creativity more generally.

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