Cognitive science is currently the scene of a number of exciting debates.  The so-called ‘classical’ approach, which has dominated cognitive science since the 1950s, is being challenged on various fronts.  Researchers in situated cognition and robotics charge the classical approach with ignoring the fact that natural cognition is not designed to solve abstract problems but to control the movement of bodies in specific ecological contexts.  Evolutionary psychologists and researchers in artificial life argue that mainstream cognitive science has ignored crucial questions about the phylogeny of mental structures. Finally, proponents of dynamical approaches to cognition claim that the digital models favoured by the classical approach should be supplemented by quantitative models. 

These non-classical approaches all claim, to differing degrees, to represent radical challenges to mainstream cognitive science.  However, I argue that they need not be seen as potential replacements for the classical approach, as some of the more radical critics claim.  Rather, the non-classical approaches can be seen as providing further insights that complement the classical approach, enlarging its vision rather than eclipsing it.  In the final chapter I outline a vision of a truly comprehensive 'integrated cognitive science' that combines the best of the classical approach with the insights of all the non-classical ones. 

It is hard to assess these sweeping claims about cognition in general without reference to a particular field of research. The emotions constitute one such field, and, moreover, one that is eminently suited to assessing the claims of the non-classical approaches to cognition.  I discuss some classical models of  emotion, and examine some criticisms of these models.  I argue that the non-classical approaches offer just the conceptual resources needed to address these criticisms.  In other words, we will not have a good theory of emotion until we adopt the integrated version of cognitive science I recommend. 

biblio2.pdf	50 KB	02/12/2007	23:53:22
chap1.pdf	79 KB	02/12/2007	23:53:22
chap2.pdf	68 KB	02/12/2007	23:53:22
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intro.pdf	37 KB	02/12/2007	23:53:23
titlepage.pdf	3 KB	02/12/2007	23:53:23