This is my second reading club. My
first one dealt primarily with some classics of LDS
philosophy. This one is organized by Chris over at
Mixing Memory. If you are
interested joining the reading group please visit
the mailing list Chris has for it. However also just feel
free to post some comments at your blog. I'm hoping to use
this page to centralize all the posts on the subject. If only
for my own use. So if you do make a post and your blog isn't
on Chris' sidebar, please leave a comment below with a link.
The book we're studying is Michael Tomasello's The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. It's an apparently somewhat controversial text in cognitive science. Since I've done only limited reading in cognitive science I'm hoping that this reading group will help me get up to speed on some of the issues, correct all the influence reading Steven Pinker has had, and perhaps raise some issues related to my philosophical interests. The Steven Pinker comment's a bit of a joke, but it will quickly become apparent that Tomasello takes a rather different view than Pinker. Anyway, on to the reading...
At the moment Harvard has the entire book up online. It is for an exam so I don't know how long it will remain online. (Probably until someone notices this page) So it might be worthwhile downloading it now. It's password protected so some functions like printing are disabled.
Many people are tagging their posts with Technorati tags. You should just be able to search on the tag to see posts. Alternatively you can simply search Technorati by the book title. Assuming everyone includes the book's title in their posts. Note that it sometimes takes a day or two for the index to rebuild. So additions won't be immediately displayed.
Someone else in the reading group has put up a del.icio.us site. It also has an rss aggregator for list of posts.
The first chapter is available online and may be worth reading for those curious about the reading club. (A different online source than the above from Harvard))
Mixing Memory: Primarily placing Tomasello in the historical context of cognitive science. Chris also sets up the conflict with Pinker.
Mormon Metaphysics: I introduce the text, note some connections, and then raise some possible problems.
JesseCogBlog: Jesse discusses whether Tomasello's "empathy"
is sufficient or just necessary for human social capabilities.
Mixing Memory: Chris discusses the first chapter
with criticisms as well as bringing in connectivist theory.
Gene Expression: Razib discusses the opening chapter in light of
his interests and as a kind of manifesto.
Mixing Memory: Chris discusses rather thoroughly autism -
a key evidence in Tomasello.
Science and Politics: Bora summarizes chapter 1.
Mormon Metaphysics: Some recent news about learning relevant to Tomasello.
Mixing Memory: Chris discusses the cognitive
abilities of apes from the chapter.
Mixing Memory: Chris discusses resources on
language evolution.
Mixing Memory: Chris discusses Tomasello's notion of
the human ratchet.
Mormon Metaphysics: I introduce more in depth three notions of Peirce that relate to the
book.
Mormon Metaphysics: I apply Peirce's conception as a critique of Tomasello's basic thesis.
Mormon Metaphysics: A recent discovery regarding brain mutations relevant to Tomasello's thesis.
Mormon Metaphysics:
I discuss infants and "theory theory" and whether we see others as like us or whether it is the reverse.
Mormon Metaphysics: I discuss a bit of Heidegger on discourse and what Tomasello is arguing for.
Mormon Metaphysics: Heidegger, "worlds" and how symbols orient us in a world.
Mormon Metaphysics: New fMRI studies on autism and the part of the brain dealing with reasoning and attention.
I've closed comments in order to avoid spam since I don't check this older blog as much anymore.
and Theology
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Blogged by Clark Goble