This series will include monographs and collections of studies devoted
to the investigation and exploration of knowledge, information, and data
processing systems of all kinds, no matter whether human, (other)
animal, or machine. Its scope is intended to span the full range of
interests from classical problems in the philosophy of mind and
philosophical psychology through issues in cognitive psychology and
sociobiology (concerning the mental capabilities of other species) to
ideas related to artificial intelligence and to computer science. While
primary emphasis will be placed upon theoretical, conceptual, and
epistemological aspects of these problems and domains, empirical,
experimental, and methodological studies will also appear from time to
time. The present volume offers a broad and imaginative approach to the
study of the mind, which emphasizes several themes, namely: the
importance of functional organization apart from the specific material
by means of which it may be implemented; the use of modeling to simulate
these functional processes and subject them to certain kinds of tests;
the use of mentalistic language to describe and predict the behavior of
artifacts; and the subsumption of processes of adaptation, learning, and
intelligence by means of explanatory principles. The author has produced
a rich and complex, lucid and readable discussion that clarifies and
illuminates many of the most difficult problems arising within this
difficult domain.
