A Dictionary of Philosophy, Third Edition
. Any group of theories of the mind which model it on information processing systems known as ‘neural networks’, using the idea of ‘parallel processing’, whereby several different sets of interactions between nodes in a computer network occur simultaneously, or in parallel. In this way, separate elements to carry separate pieces of information are not needed, in contrast to theories like the trace theory of MEMORY or the LANGUAGE OF THOUGHT hypothesis. How far this represents a fundamentally new approach is disputed.
B.Beakley and P.Ludlow (eds), The Philosophy of Mind: Classical Problems/Contemporary Issues, MIT Press, 1992. (Part IV includes relevant items.)
W.Bechtel and A.Abrahamsen, Connectionism and the Mind, Blackwell, 1991; An Introduction to Parallel Processing in Networks, Blackwell, 1991.
(General introduction.)
*P.N.Johnson-Laird, The Computer and the Mind: an Introduction to Cognitive Science, Fontana, 1988, chapter 10. (Elementary introduction. Cf. also T.Crane, The Mechanical Mind: a Philosophical Introduction to Minds, Machines and Representation, Penguin, 1995, pp. 154–62.
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