The brain shaped mind

Philosophers and scientist have puzzled over the nature of our minds throughout history. In The Brain-Shaped Mind Naomi Goldblum presents the connectionist theory of the mind. Unfortunately, I felt that she does not go into enough detail of connectionist models before getting on to speculations about what they may be able to do for us. There are a few chapters on the basics of connectionism, and some space is given to describing experiments in this area, but the book really needs more on the specifics of connectionist models.

For instance, it seems vital to know why our minds divide up into discrete categories things that really form a continuum. One example Goldblum gives is the distinction between dogs and wolves, and why we see a wolfhound as a dog. But to me this question seemed too complicated to be described in this way. In general, without more background information, the arguments put forward in the book seem too much like 'Just so stories'.

The book seems to be primarily written for an academic audience - it has a defense of connectionism against its critics and plenty of further reading listed at the end. Although it is too basic for those wanting to get into the subject itself, it might serve as a useful overview of connectionism for those sudying a different subject.