Paul Thagard

Paul Thagard is Professor of Philosophy, with cross appointment to Psychology and Computer Science, Director of the Cognitive Science Program, and University Research Chair at the University of Waterloo. He is a graduate of the Universities of Saskatchewan, Cambridge, Toronto (Ph. D. in philosophy) and Michigan (M.S. in computer science). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Cognitive Science Society, and the Association for Psychological Science, and received a Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize.

New software application for increasing mutual understanding using cognitive-affective maps: EMPATHICA.

Paul Thagard's blog for Psychology Today.

Books

• The Cognitive Science of Science: Explanation, Discovery, and Conceptual Change (MIT Press, May, 2012).
• The Brain and the Meaning of Life (Princeton University Press, 2010). Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Podcast discussion.
• Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science(ed., Elsevier, 2007).
• Hot Thought: Mechanisms and Applications of Emotional Cognition (MIT Press, 2006).
• Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science (MIT Press, 1996; second edition, 2005).
• Coherence in Thought and Action (MIT Press, 2000).
• How Scientists Explain Disease (Princeton University Press, 1999).
• Mind Readings: Introductory Selections in Cognitive Science (ed., MIT Press, 1998).
• Mental Leaps: Analogy in Creative Thought(MIT Press, 1995) with Keith Holyoak.
• Conceptual Revolutions (Princeton University Press, 1992).
• Computational Philosophy of Science (MIT Press, 1988).
• Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery (MIT Press, 1986) with John Holland, Keith Holyoak, and Richard Nisbett.

Articles

1. Coherence and Analogy Articles

2. Science and Medicine Articles

3. Emotion Articles

4. Neuroscience Articles

5. Social Science Articles

Curriculum vitae, including full publication list (PDF)

---

Research interests

• analogy
• creativity
• coherence
• mechanisms
• decision making
• moral psychology
• conceptual change
• explanatory reasoning
• theoretical neuroscience
• discovery and innovation
• emotions and consciousness
• integrating cognitive & social sciences
• Video: Changing minds about climate change.
• Audio: The Brain is Wider than the Sky: Cognition, Emotion, and Allegory.

Courses

Winter, 2012:

• Phil/Psych 256: Introduction to Cognitive Science

Others:

• COGSCI 600: Graduate Seminar in Cognitive Science
• Phil 145, Critical Thinking
• Phil 224, Environmental Ethics
• Phil 226, Ethics and the Life Sciences
• Phil 255, Philosophy of Mind, 2005
• Phil 255, Philosophy of Mind, 2000
• Phil/Psych 446 (2005), Cognitive Modelling
• Phil/Psych 446, (2007) Seminar in Cognitive Science: Consciousness
• Phil/Psych 447, (2008) Seminar in Cognitive Science: Brains and the Meaning of Life
• Phil/Psych 447, (2009) Seminar in Cognitive Science: Creativity and Emotion
• Phil/Psych 447, (2010) Seminar in Cognitive Science: Mind and Society
• Phil/Psych 447, (2011) Seminar in Cognitive Science: Creativity and Innovation
• Phil 474/673: Life, Mind, and Disease
• Phil 479/679M, Foundations of Cognitive Science
• Phil 680, Rationality
• Phil 680b, Rationality, continued.

Paul Thagard              Office: HH368
Department of Philosophy  Lab:  HH 322
University of Waterloo    Email: pthagard@uwaterloo.ca
Waterloo, On., Canada
N2L 3G1
(519) 888-4567 extension 33594

Email Paul.

Computational Epistemology Laboratory. Information on cognitive science, bibliographies, software.

This page updated Feb. 6, 2012