Mind As Machine: A History Of Cognitive Science Two-Volume Set
by Margaret Boden /
2006 / English / PDF
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This two volume work is so huge because it is an apparently unedited text with a wandering associative organization (or disorganization), no apparent limits on what is included. There are major irrelevant digressions into hobby horse topics of the author's, such as early efforts to make automata. Furthermore, it does not meet the accuracy standards that one would hope for in a history. I found numerous inaccuracies in the areas I know well. That is why I characterize it as a memoir. Despite the huge size, coverage is limited to North America and the UK. Cognitive science in Europe and Asia are neglected. In addition, the huge size makes for a user unfriendly document. There are many cross-references to other sections of the text that may well be in the other volume, and all of the references are at the end of the second volume. The cross-references are typically imprecise, to a large section, and it is not always obvious what was meant. I regret having spent the money to buy this work. The best I can say for it is that it should be in university libraries as a research resource for those who might write better, more useful histories of cognitive science. But those authors had better do their own fact checking.
