Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science

Sixteen hundred pages covering the entire history of cognitive science from its cybernetic origins through connectionism, evolutionary psychology, situated robotics, and dynamical systems theory. Boden — herself a participant and philosopher of AI since the 1960s — maps the intellectual landscape with extraordinary breadth: logic, linguistics, neuroscience, anthropology, and computer science all receive serious treatment. Probably the most complete history of cognitivism written from the inside. The scale is daunting but the writing is clear, and the book works equally well as a reference and as a narrative. For anyone wanting to understand how the sciences of mind arrived at their current state, this is the definitive survey.