Brain,
Mind and ComputersBrain,
Mind and Computers
In an age when computers make ever greater inroads into our everyday
lives, well may we ask: Do computers have intelligence? Are they living?
Have free will? Exercise moral judgments? Stanley L. Jaki, historian and
philosopher of science, deals with these and related questions in Brain,
Mind and Computers, a thoroughly documented rebuttal of contemporary
claims about the existence of, or possibility for, man-made minds. His
method includes a meticulously documented survey of computer development,
a review of the relevant result of brain reseach, and an evaluation of
accomplishment of physicalist schools in psychology, symbolic logic, and
linguistics, and a thorough critique of claims about artificial intelligence.
Comments on the first edition:
"Dr. Jaki's book is the most informed, pentetrating and lucidly written treatment of the subject that I have read anywhere." Robert A. Nisbet, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University.
"Certainly it is rewarding and refreshing to read such penetrating criticism of a field in which gratuitous theorizing and dogmatism are able to flourish bcause our scientific understanding is so small." Sir John C. Eccles, Nobel Laureate, 1963.
"This is a book fascinating in style as well as content...which every scientist should read." Eugene P. Wigner, Nobel Laureate, 1963.
"Dr. Jaki presents a sustained, well-informed, and persuasive argument for mind-body dualism...my own predilections are exactly opposite to Dr. Jaki's conclusions, but I welcome his challenge..." Herbert Feigl, University of Minnesota