Background
Johnson-Laird, Philip Nicholas was born on October 12, 1936 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Son of Frederic Ryberg and Dorothy (Blackett) J.-L. came to the United States, 1989.
(Good reasoning can lead to success; bad reasoning can lea...)
Good reasoning can lead to success; bad reasoning can lead to catastrophe. Yet, it's not obvious how we reason, and why we make mistakes - so much of our mental life goes on outside our awareness. In recent years huge strides have been made into developing a scientific understanding of reasoning. This book by one of the pioneers of the field, Philip Johnson-Laird, looks at the mental processes that underlie our reasoning. It provides the most accessible account yet of the science of reasoning. We can all reason from our childhood onwards - but how? 'How We Reason' outlines a bold approach to understanding reasoning. According to this approach, we don't rely on the laws of logic or probability - we reason by thinking about what's possible, we reason by seeing what is common to the possibilities. As the book shows, this approach can answer many of the questions about how we reason, and what causes mistakes in our reasoning that can lead to disasters such as Chernobyl. It shows why our irrational fears may become psychological illnesses, why terrorists develop 'crazy' ideologies, and how we can act in order to improve our reasoning. The book ends by looking at the role of reasoning in three extraordinary case histories: the Wright brothers' use of analogies in inventing their flyer, the cryptanalysts' deductions in breaking the German's Enigma code in World War II, and Dr. John Snow's inductive reasoning in discovering how cholera spread from one person to another. Accessible, stimulating, and controversial, How we Reason presents a bold new approach to understanding one of the most intriguing facets of being human.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199551332/?tag=2022091-20
( In a field choked with seemingly impenetrable jargon, ...)
In a field choked with seemingly impenetrable jargon, Philip N. Johnson-Laird has done the impossible: written a book about how the mind works that requires no advance knowledge of artificial intelligence, neurophysiology, or psychology. The mind, he says, depends on the brain in the same way as the execution of a program of symbolic instructions depends on a computer, and can thus be understood by anyone willing to start with basic principles of computation and follow his step-by-step explanations. The author begins with a brief account of the history of psychology and the birth of cognitive science after World War II. He then describes clearly and simply the nature of symbols and the theory of computation, and follows with sections devoted to current computational models of how the mind carries out all its major tasks, including visual perception, learning, memory, the planning and control of actions, deductive and inductive reasoning, and the formation of new concepts and new ideas. Other sections discuss human communication, meaning, the progress that has been made in enabling computers to understand natural language, and finally the difficult problems of the conscious and unconscious mind, free will, needs and emotions, and self-awareness. In an envoi, the author responds to the critics of cognitive science and defends the computational view of the mind as an alternative to traditional dualism: cognitive science integrates mind and matter within the same explanatory framework. This first single-authored introduction to cognitive science will command the attention of students of cognitive science at all levels including psychologists, linguists, computer scientists, philosophers, and neuroscientists--as well as all readers curious about recent knowledge on how the mind works.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674156161/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0086F2V9E/?tag=2022091-20
Johnson-Laird, Philip Nicholas was born on October 12, 1936 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Son of Frederic Ryberg and Dorothy (Blackett) J.-L. came to the United States, 1989.
Bachelor with honors, University College, London, 1964. Doctor of Philosophy, University College, 1967. Doctorate (honorary), University Gothenburg, Sweden, 1983.
Doctorate (honorary), Padau University, Italy, 1997. Doctorate (honorary), Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, 2000. Doctorate (honorary), National University Distance Education, Madrid, Spain, 2000.
Doctorate (honorary), University Ghent, Belgium, 2002. Doctorate (honorary), University Palermo, Sicily, 2005.
Assistant lecturer, then lecturer psychology, University College, 1966-1973;
visiting member of faculty., Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, 1971-1972;
reader, then professor experimental psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton., England, 1973-1982;
special appointment, then assistant director applied psychology unit, Medical Research Council, Cambridge, England, 1982-1989;
professor pyschology, Princeton University, 1989-1994;
Stuart professor, Princeton University, since 1994. Committee member Social Science Research Council, London, 1975-1982. Committee chairperson Edition and Social Research Council, London, 1988.
Consultant National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, others, since 1990.
(This book aims to reach an understanding of how the mind ...)
(Good reasoning can lead to success; bad reasoning can lea...)
( In a field choked with seemingly impenetrable jargon, ...)
(Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include compa...)
(Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include compa...)
Member Campaign for Disarmament, London, 1959-1982. Fellow: Royal Society United Kingdom, British Academy. Member: National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, Society Experimental Psychologists, British Psychological Society (Spearman medal 1974, President's award 1985), American Psychological Society.
Married Maureen Mary Sullivan, August, 1959. Children: Russell E.B., Dorothy C.
