This book is an essay on how people make sense of each other and the world they live in. Making sense is the activity of fitting something puzzling into a coherent pattern of mental representations that include concepts, beliefs, goals, and actions. Paul Thagard proposes a general theory of coherence as the satisfaction of multiple interacting constraints, and discusses the theory's numerous psychological and philosophical applications. Much of human cognition can be understood in terms of coherence as constraint satisfaction, and many of the central problems of philosophy can be given coherence-based solutions. Thagard shows how coherence can help to unify psychology and philosophy, particularly when addressing questions of epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, politics, and aesthetics. He also shows how coherence can integrate cognition and emotion.
- ISBN10 0262700921
- ISBN13 9780262700924
- Publish Date 26 July 2002 (first published 23 October 2000)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher MIT Press Ltd
- Imprint Bradford Books
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 330
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780262700924