Human and Machine Thinking

by Philip N. Johnson-Laird

This book aims to reach an understanding of how the mind carries out three sorts of thinking -- deduction, induction, and creation -- to consider what goes right and what goes wrong, and to explore computational models of these sorts of thinking. Written for students of the mind -- psychologists, computer scientists, philosophers, linguists, and other cognitive scientists -- it also provides general readers with a self-contained account of human and machine thinking. The author presents his point of view, rather than a review, as simply as possible so that no technical background is required. Like the field of research itself, it calls for hard thinking about thinking.

210 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1992

About the author

Philip N. Johnson-Laird is a professor at Princeton University's Department of Psychology and author of several notable books on human cognition and the psychology of reasoning.