A Companion to Cognitive Science (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy)

Rating:
Summary: A Massive Book on a Massive Subject
Review: Cognitive Science is a large and relatively new field. Its subject is how the mind works, using the tools and methods of science. In its early days in the 50's and 60's it dealt primarily with discussions of artificial intelligence, and could safely said to have concerned itself with a host of issues that today seem rather boring and out-of-date. Yet in the past two decades it has experienced a flourishing, brought to the foreground especially by the writings of popular figures such as Steven Pinker of MIT on language and others on neural networks.

This volume is massive, but it has to cover a lot of ground, since cognitive science is now an interdisciplinary field with a vast array of topics. The volume starts with an introduction and historical overview of cognitive science, which takes up 100 pages. This is an interesting introduction.

Unfortunately the remaining portion of this large volume is unsuited for the beginner. The various areas of cognitive science are treated, each in a separate article. This includes AI, neuroscience, language models, and so on, each in a rather short piece (sometimes 7-8 pages) written by an expert on that subject (including figures such as Terrence Deacon, of 'The Symbolic Species', who has an article consisting mainly of rather perplexing diagrams).

The vast range of subjects and the articles' short length does not make for the best combination. What suffers is readability and usability. It is hard to imagine what purpose exactly this volume could serve. The uninitiated will find it almost impossible to jump into - for it is certainly not an introduction, and the articles presume a decent background in the subject matter - whereas the serious student of cognitive science will almost certainly want more meat to chew on in order to get the theories and findings of the respective scientists and fields presented. All this is complicated by the fact that these theories are for the most part very recent and constantly undergoing change, which means that this book could be out of date very shortly (although the earlier, more historical sections on AI and the early days of cognitive science will remain interesting).

In summary: an ambitious work, attractively laid out, but not terribly useful for most, I would imagine.

Rating:
Summary: For the postgraduate
Review: I do agree with Nessander that it is pretty inaccessible for most laymen. However, I do like the concise but still fairly substantial papers in the rest of the companion, since I do know aspects of the field (cognitive science) well.

The book will mostly serve academics, or students at the postgraduate level who require a thorough introduction to specialised areas of cognitive science, but do not have the time to follow up on the literature. I presume that people who read it would have already had at least an undergraduate background in one of the fields covered (AI, psychology, economics etc.)

So while its audience base is limited, it still nonetheless serve a useful purpose to some readers like myself. It makes related topics accessible, without reducing it (the level of discussion that is) to the popular science level of discussion like articles in Scientific American etc. Also, it is not meant to be read from cover to cover.