In The Algebraic Mind, Gary Marcus attempts to integrate two theories about how the mind works, one that says that the mind is a computer-like manipulator of symbols, and another that says that the mind is a large network of neurons working together in parallel. Resisting the conventional wisdom that says that if the mind is a large neural network it cannot simultaneously be a manipulator of symbols, Marcus outlines a variety of ways in which neural systems could be organized so as to manipulate symbols, and he shows why such systems are more likely to provide an adequate substrate...

Reflecting the focus of a Jean Piaget Symposium entitled Biology and Knowledge: Structural Constraints on Development, this volume presents many of the emergent themes discussed.

Among these themes are:

• Structural constraints on cognitive development and learning come in many shapes and forms and involve appeal to more than one level of analysis.
• To postulate innate knowledge is not to deny that humans can acquire new concepts.
• It is unlikely that there is only one learning mechanism, even if one prefers to work with general as opposed to...