A Mind for Structure Exploring the Root

The working principles of mind, including their origins and evolution, has long been a difficult and controversial area among psychologists. But it is now also under siege by cognitive scientists, biologists, anthropologists, mathematicians, computer modelers, and even physicists. Yet little has been generally agreed, even about basic, everyday, processes of perception and cognition. Critics now warn us about the overly simple notions of biological adaptation and cognitive processing that have flooded the field in recent years. And they stress the need for new conceptual foundations in the area, stressing work on complex, dynamic systems. With an eye on all these developments, this book is an attempt to establish such foundations. It stresses how the dynamic structure in environmental change has driven the evolution of living systems, from the origins of life to human cognitive functions. The ideas drawn together have many implications for research and theory on the human mind; for the goals and purposes of science itself in such dynamic fields; and for the nature of interventions in many practical domains.