creators_name: Dennett, Daniel C
type: newsarticle
datestamp: 1998-04-14
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:47
metadata_visibility: show
title: Review of Varela et al. & Edelman
ispublished: pub
subjects: phil-mind
full_text_status: public
abstract: Two books published within months of each other, each critical of the reigning family of working assumptions known as cognitive science, each calling for a more biological vision of the mind and even sharing a slogan: we must see the mind as "embodied". Is this merely a striking coincidence or perhaps a case of convergent evolution of scientific ideas? There are further striking similarities. Francisco Varela, the principle author of The Embodied Mind, is an immunologist-turned-neuroscientist, and so is Gerald Edelman, author of Bright Air, Brilliant Fire. Both books call for a biological counter-revolution to succeed the cognitive revolution, but neither are attracted to the even more radically revolutionary "quantum gravity" speculations of Roger Penrose.
date: 1992-06
date_type: published
publication: New Scientist
pagerange: 48-49
refereed: TRUE
citation:   Dennett, Daniel C  (1992) Review of Varela et al. & Edelman.  [Newspaper/Magazine Article]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/268/1/edelman.htm