book announcement--Scheutz

[David Weininger]

I thought readers of the Connectionists List might be interested in this 
book.  For more information, please visit http://mitpress.mit.edu/0262194783/ 
 Thank you!

Best,
David

Computationalism
New Directions
edited by Matthias Scheutz

Classical computationalism--the view that mental states are computational 
states--has come under attack in recent years. Critics claim that in defining 
computation solely in abstract, syntactic terms, computationalism neglects 
the real-time, embodied, real-world constraints with which cognitive systems 
must cope. Instead of abandoning computationalism altogether, however, some 
researchers are reconsidering it, recognizing that real-world computers, like 
minds, must deal with issues of embodiment, interaction, physical 
implementation, and semantics.

This book lays the foundation for a successor notion of computationalism. It 
covers a broad intellectual range, discussing historic developments of the 
notions of computation and mechanism in the computationalist model, the role 
of Turing machines and computational practice in artificial intelligence 
research, different views of computation and their role in the computational 
theory of mind, the nature of intentionality, and the origin of language.

Matthias Scheutz is Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering 
at the University of Notre Dame.

Contributors
Philip E. Agre, B. Jack Copeland, Stevan Harnad, John Haugeland, Matthias 
Scheutz, Aaron Sloman, Brian Cantwell Smith.

6 x 9, 256 pp., cloth, ISBN 0-262-19478-3, $35.00

A Bradford Book

______________________
David Weininger
Associate Publicist
The MIT Press
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Cambridge, MA  02142
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