The Dynamics of Thought, 2005 Synthese Library Series, Vol. 300

This book is a selection from the articles that I have written over a period of more than twenty years. Since the focus of my research interests has shifted several times during this period, it would be difficult to identify a common theme for all the papers in the volume. Following the Swedish tradition, I therefore present this as a smörgåsbord of philosophical and cognitive issues that I have worked on. To create some order, I have organized the sixteen papers into five general sections: (1) Decision theory; (2) belief revision and nonmonotonic logic; (3) induction; (4) semantics and pragmatics; and (5) cognition and evolution. Having said this, I still think that there is a common theme to my work over the years: The dynamics of thought. My academic interests have all the time dealt with aspects of how different kinds of knowledge should be represented, and, in particular, how changes in knowledge will affect thinking. Hence the title of the book.

Preface. Acknowledgements. Decision theory. 1: Probabilistic reasoning and evidentiary value. 2: Unreliable probabilities, risk taking, and decision making. 3: Rights, games and social choice. Belief revision and nonmonotonic reasoning. 4: The dynamics of belief systems: Foundations vs. coherence theories. 5: The role of expectations in reasoning. 6: How logic emerges from the dynamics of information. Induction. 7: Induction, conceptual spaces and AI. 8: Three levels of inductive inference. Semantics and pragmatics. 9: Frameworks for properties: Possible worlds vs. conceptual spaces. 10: The pragmatic role of modality in natural language. 11: The social stance. 12: The emergence of meaning. 13: Does semantics need reality? Evolution and cognition. 14: The nature of man – games that genes play? 15: The detachment of thought. 16: Cognitive science: From computers to anthills as models of human thought. References. Index.