Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature

The book examines the relationship between intelligence and environmental complexity.

Peter Godfrey-Smith (Author)

9780521451666, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 March 1996

328 pages
23.6 x 16 x 2.6 cm, 0.648 kg

This book explains the relationship between intelligence and environmental complexity, and in so doing links philosophy of mind to more general issues about the relations between organisms and environments, and to the general pattern of 'externalist' explanations. The author provides a biological approach to the investigation of mind and cognition in nature. In particular he explores the idea that the function of cognition is to enable agents to deal with environmental complexity. The history of the idea in the work of Dewey and Spencer is considered, as is the impact of recent evolutionary theory on our understanding of the place of mind in nature.

Part I. Foundations: 1. Naturalism and teleology
2. Externalism and internalism
3. Spencer’s Version
4. Dewey’s version
5. On construction
6. The question of correspondence
Part II. Models: 7. Adaptive plasticity
8. The signal detection model
9. Complex individuals, complex populations.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of science [PDA]