Description: How does the brain embody the mind? Drawing on philosophy, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, "Simple Minds explores the construction of the mind from the matter of the brain. Its primary focus is the centerpiece of cognitive science, the concept of representation Lloyd's dialectical theory of representation explains cognition in "simple minds" and offers provocative glimpses into language, consciousness, and reasoning in the complex human mind.

Dan Lloyd asserts that an adequate theory of representation must explain how representations arise in purely physical systems, and it must account for familiar aspects of thought. Following a critique of two current models of representation in cognition, he offers a new theory developed through the imaginary evolution of simple information processing systems. The theory is first used as an analytic tool in a survey of connectionism and neuroscience and then is extended to encompass human consciousness and cognition.

"Simple Minds discusses both philosophical issues and empirical science in detail. It takes seriously the need to consider the realities of both the physical organism and the mental representations that guide the interaction of the organism with its environment.

Dan Lloyd is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Trinity College, Hartford A Bradford Book

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