Goodbye, Descartes
Subtitle: the end of logic and the search for a new cosmology of the mind
By: Keith Devlin.
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 301
Subjects: Philosophy of mind
Description: Keith Devlin chronicles scientists' centuries-old quest to discover the laws of thought, from the astonishingly adept efforts of the ancient Greeks, to the invention of the first primitive "thinking machine" in the late nineteenth century, to radical findings that are challenging the very notion that the mind follows logical rules.

Devlin introduces a host of new findings showing that many ways of thinking that are perfectly rational are at the same time entirely illogical, and that the exquisite verbal tango of human communication has little to do with logical processing. We must begin to appreciate, Devlin argues, that our minds are intimately intertwined with the world around us, and that our feelings and perceptions, even our social norms, play crucial roles in the marvelously complex dance of human cognition.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-294) and index.