Images of Mind: In Memory of Donald Broadbent and Allen Newell

Abstract

he idea of “mind” did not spring fully formed into human consciousness. On the contrary, it has been articulated slowly through the millennia, drawing upon countless metaphors and images in different cultures at different times. In the last 50 years, the concepts of conventional science and technology have provided the primary images that we employ in the discussion of mental processes. Unfortunately, there are many competing perspectives, each of which is incomplete when it comes to explaining mental phenomena, and most are inconsistent. In this chapter, four prominent images that have influenced cognitive science in the last half-century are considered. These distinguish structure and process theories of mind developed in psychology, from the epistemic and “pathic” theories of mental states emerging in artificial intelligence (AI). A critical challenge is to construct a theory of cognition in which these different images of mind can be seen to be complementary views of a single system. The chapter closes with an example of such a theory.