Cognitive science: Leap of thought

Dueling Theories: Thought Experiments in Cognitive Science

Brook (1999) identified thought experiments as one of the key elements of philosophy's contribution to the cognitive sciences. In this paper, I tackle the question of how and why thought experiments work, and what exactly it is they do for us when they do work. I propose that thought experiments almost always involve two different theories of the world being compared to show that they do, or mo...

The Role of Thought Experiments in Science and Science Learning

This chapter will (1) briefly review selected studies examining the nature of thought experiments in science; (2) review previous studies on the role that thought experiments can play in science instruction; (3) give case study examples of thought experiments (TEs) proposed by both teachers and students and the ensuing classroom discussions. We discuss several definitions for the term thought e...

Science at the Speed of Thought

In this paper we describe a flexible environment that combines scientific data mining with parallel computing in an immersive visualization environment. The goal is to minimize the time between the generation of a scientific hypothesis and the test of that idea, or science at the speed of thought. Author

Cognitive science: from computers to anthills as models of human thought

The roots of cognitive science go as far back as those of philosophy. One way of defining cognitive science is to say that it is just naturalised philosophy. Much of contemporary thinking about the mind derives from René Descartes' distinction between the body and the soul. They were constituted of two different substances and it was only humans that had a soul and were capable of thinking. Acc...

Contemporary Philosophy of Science and Neoinstitutional Thought