Connectionism is a generic term which embraces a large variety of specific algorithmic forms and architectures. What unites the models is a commitment to the use of simple individual processing units, arranged to process information by a form of co-operative parallelism. As such, it is an approach to computation that differs significantly from the more conventional symbol processing methods traditionally associated with artificial intelligence.

Ranging across both standard philosophical territory and the landscape of cutting-edge cognitive science, Mindware: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Second Edition, is a vivid and engaging introduction to key issues, research, and opportunities in the field.

Starting with the vision of mindware as software and debates between realists, instrumentalists, and eliminativists, Andy Clark takes students on a no-holds-barred journey through connectionism, dynamical systems, and real-world robotics before moving on to the frontiers of cognitive technologies,...

There is growing evidence from the science of human behavior that our everyday, folk understanding of ourselves as conscious, rational, responsible agents may be radically mistaken. The science, some argue, recommends a view of conscious agency as merely epiphenomenal: an impotent accompaniment to the whirring unconscious machinery (the inner zombie) that prepares, decides and causes our behavior. The new essays in this volume display and explore this radical claim, revisiting the folk concept of the responsible agent after abandoning the image of a central executive, and "decomposing" the...

Tomorrow's top lawyers know that lawyer wellness is NOT an oxymoron. Now more than ever, lawyers who fail to invest consistently in their personal wellness are at a competitive disadvantage in their legal career - and in their lives as a whole. Lawyers who do not adopt a wellness lifestyle today will fall further behind in the coming years as the legal services business rapidly evolves. This book shows you why this is so - and gives you the essential wellness information and resources you need to thrive in tomorrow's legal services landscape. In this book you will discover: *why so many...

Extended Cognition examines the way in which features of a subject's cognitive environment can become constituent parts of the cognitive process itself. This volume explores the epistemological ramifications of this idea, bringing together academics from a variety of different areas, to investigate the very idea of an extended epistemology