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Philosophy Index The following appeared in Volume 96, Number 2 (Spring 1997) of the APA Newsletters.
Jay L. Garfield, ed., Foundations of Cognitive Science: The Essential Readings. New York: Paragon House, 1990. xxx + 254 pp. Reviewed by Norman R. Gall, St. John’s College, University of Manitoba
This collection is intended to be a companion to Fetzner’s Philosophy and Cognitive Science (New York: Paragon House, 1990), but, as a collection of foundational works in cognitive science, it stands on its own. As Garfield points out in the preface, it would be silly to even presume that any manageable collection could deal with all of the important foundational topics. With the many (and more recent) collections already on the market, it might be difficult to see at first blush what this one could accomplish. However, the topics chosen provide an excellent core of readings for building an introductory course in the philosophical issues in cognitive science. The readings are accessible and clear and, for the most part, free of jargon that might turn away the less technologically-minded student. As well, the material is accessible to students of a number of different disciplines including philosophy, psychology and computer science. It contains much required reading for a second or third year course in cognitive science.
The introduction to a book of readings can either be a help or a hindrance to an instructor, Garfield’s introduction is most certainly the former. In addition to giving a good overview to the readings for the student, the relative importance and interrelatedness of the issues are clearly explained and situated within the discipline. The debates (e.g., naturalists vs. individualists and realists vs. eliminativists) are made perspicuous. The implications of each position are drawn out and what is at stake explained. It is a very good adjunct to the first few lectures where these problems are first introduced.
There are five larger topics around which Garfield organizes the 21 original readings: (1) Critical Distinctions ("Convention, Context, and Meaning: Conditions on Natural Language Understanding," by the editor, "Computation and Cognition: Issues in the Foundations of Cognitive Science," by Pylyshyn, "Epistemics: The Regulative Theory of Cognition," by Goldman, "Three Kinds of Intentional Psychology" by Dennett), (2) Computation Theory in Cognitive Science ("Computer Science as Empirical Enquiry: Symbols and Search," by Newell and Simon, "The Four-Color Problem and Its Philosophical Significance," by Tymoczko, "Lucas’ Number Is Finally up," by Bowie; and "Why I am not a Turing Machine: Gödel’s Theorems and the Philosophy of Mind," by Tymoczko), (3) Artificial Intelligence ("Minds, Brains, and Programs," by Searle, "Replies to Searle," by Dennett, Fodor, Haugeland, Hofstadter, Lycan, Bridgeman, and Pylyshyn; "Modules, Frames, Fridgeons, Sleeping Dogs, and the Music of the Spheres," by Fodor: and "Artificial Intelligence as Philosophy and as Psychology," by Dennett), (4) Human Intelligence ("Ecological Optics," by J.J. Gibson; "How Direct is Visual Perception?" by Fodor and Pylyshyn; "Grammar, Psychology, and Indeterminacy," by Stich, and "What the Linguist is talking about," by Chomsky and Katz), and (5) New Frontiers ("RESTAURANT Revisited, or "Lunch with BORIS," and "The Role of TAUs in Narratives," both by Dyer; "Moving the Semantic Fulcrum," by Winograd; "An Introduction to Connectionism," by Tienson; and "Understanding Natural Language," by Haugeland). The choice of articles has not bound the instructor into choosing the companion volume. These are excellent core readings for nearly any introduction from nearly any perspective from which an instructor would choose to teach.
To his credit, Garfield has chosen complete journal articles. I’d argue there is great value in being able to have a student read entire articles rather than excerpts. The unity of thought in a complete work is often missing in culled portions. The freedom of the student to see what other things might be buried in the paper leads to a learning experience that is directed to a greater extent by the imagination and interests of the student (and the instructor) than by the interests and pedagogical goals of an editor (no matter how lofty).
I have to admit, though, that I was disappointed by the reliance on ‘main stream’ ideas in the choice of articles. There is no doubt that these are the readings with which any serious student of cognitive science must be conversant-could you imagine discussing philosophical problems in AI without reference to Searle’s Chinese Room? But the last few years have seen many changes in perspective in terms of what issues should be at the forefront of cognitive science. The latest reading offered is "Moving the Semantic Fulcrum," by Winograd (1985). Recognizing that the book is dated 1990, I’d suggest that a new or expanded final chapter be considered for the second edition. The confidence in connectionism to solve the problems of cognitive science is waning in the mid-90's and there are a number of other perspectives waiting in the wings. These perspectives would have to be provided to the students in the form of handouts or assignments to obtain the material on their own to make the course complete.
Notes from each article are found at the end of each paper and the bibliography from the whole collection is collected at the end of the book. This makes for handiness while reading the text and for searching for relevant extra bibliographic material for papers and further interest. Notes collected at the end of the book make for fumbling and lapses of concentration while searching for the author’s notes. The index is very well constructed and useful in that it cross lists authors with the concepts with which they have dealt. Instructors often wish to ensure that the required reading for a course is not priced beyond the average student’s means, and, in his preface, Garfield takes a well deserved swipe at those publishers who do not make it easy to make this sort of seminal work affordable and available. I have to say that he has succeeded in doing both with this volume. Aside from the fact the last chapter has been left behind somewhat by new ideas in the field, this is a first rate, affordable, versatile text for students.