The Laws of Thought by Tom Griffiths The Quest for a Mathematical Theory of the Mind
What's it about? The Laws of Thought (2026) is a deep dive into the world of cognitive science – the quest to understand the laws that govern our minds. It gives a broad and detailed account of the history of the discipline, starting with the foundations of formal logic before moving through behaviorism, early computational theories, semantic research, artificial neural networks, and finally probability theory. By offering insights into three main approaches to understanding the mind, it offers an intricate picture of the Laws of Thought. Some 300 years ago, a small group of prominent thinkers set out to uncover the laws that governed the world around them. Newton, Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz – they were all on a quest for the Laws of Nature, a way of applying mathematical theories to ascertain how things work. Fast forward to today and laws that govern our world – from gravity to acceleration – are taught in every physics classroom around the world. But what about the world ins...