Many disciplines, including philosophy, history, and sociology, have attempted to make sense of how science works. In this book, Paul Thagard examines scientific development from the interdisciplinary perspective of cognitive science. Cognitive science combines insights from researchers in many fields: philosophers analyze historical cases, psychologists carry out behavioral experiments, neuroscientists perform brain scans, and computer modelers write programs that simulate thought processes. Thagard develops cognitive perspectives on the nature of explanation, mental models, theory choice, and resistance to scientific change, considering disbelief in climate change as a case study. He presents a series of studies that describe the psychological and neural processes that have led to breakthroughs in science, medicine, and technology. He shows how discoveries of new theories and explanations lead to conceptual change, with examples from biology, psychology, and medicine. Finally, he shows how the cognitive science of science can integrate descriptive and normative concerns; and he considers the neural underpinnings of certain scientific concepts.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
MIT Press Ltd
ISBN-13
9780262017282
eBay Product ID (ePID)
113763239
Product Key Features
Subject Area
Developmental Psychology
Author
Paul Thagard
Publication Name
The Cognitive Science of Science: Explanation, Discovery, and Conceptual Change
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Subject
Science
Publication Year
2012
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
384 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height
229mm
Item Width
152mm
Item Weight
658g
Additional Product Features
Title_Author
Paul Thagard
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States
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