Mind and Cognition

The International Symposium on Mind and Cognition held May 28-30, 1993, at Academia Sinica in Taipei was a milestone for the philosophy community and cognitive science community in Taiwan. The symposium attracted more than three hundred participants, mostly scientists. Few people had expected that in Taiwan a philosophy conference could interest so many people from such a diverse range of fields. Those familiar with the history of analytic philosophy in Taiwan will agree that the symposium was a signal event in the development of this style of philosophy on the island. The success of the symposium was due in part to the efforts of the local analytic philosophers over many years, and in part to the contribution of four invited speakers, Paul Churchiand, John Haugelan, Tim van Gelder, and Andy Clark.

In Taiwan, as in other countries, cognitive science is still a very new field of inquiry. On of the major purpose of the symposium was to promote research in cognitive science in Taiwan from a philosophical perspective. This volume contains all of the invited and contributed papers presented at the symposium, with the exception of the text of Paul Churchiand’s keynote speech, which unfortunately could not be included in this collection. All of the papers in this volume were formally reviewed for publication. We believe that this collection of papers represents the finest research in the philosophy of cognitive science in Taiwan today.