Frustration in the field…
March 2nd, 2006
Have you heard that old Winston Churchill quote? “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the rest”…
That’s about how I’m feeling about my chosen area of study at the moment. Which means that I would like it on the record that I am very frustrated and slightly angry.
I study Cognitive Science because it purports to be an interdisciplinary look at understanding the human mind, uniting research in psychology, linguistics, philosophy and neuroscience to put together a complete picture.
And instead what happens in my cognitive science lectures? I listen to endless theories and analyses of artificial intelligence.
We are not talking about the mind! We are not unifying anything! And we are certainly not on track toward understanding cognition…
We are barelling down our own path, which as far as I can see is even more off track than any of the disciplines we began by denouncing for being to single-minded.
I am beginning to get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that more than anything else cognitive science is a haven for self-righteous programming geeks who are a little bit too versed in philosophy for their own health.
*Cognition could only be like computation if we really were designed to think in the way propogated by the rational tradition that followed the enlightenment. This just in: we don’t.
Somehow I seem to have gotten myself all wrapped up in the worst possible example of academics-as-rational-masturbation offerred at the undergraduate level. I would like to thank both my parents, and of course the academy…
Entry Filed under: University (Studies and Classes), Cognitive Science
3 Comments Add your own
1. | March 2nd, 2006 at 10:46 pm
Amen! For some reason, it hadn’t even occurred to me to talk to our prof about this, but I’m glad you did. I’d love to hear what came of it. It was kind of sad when I realised that, this term, my official Cognitive Science course was my least favourite (as much as I appreciate the pedagogical innovation)…
2. | March 3rd, 2006 at 3:31 am
I’d say I told you so, but you already knew that, so how about…
Those who make an existing structure grow can never create anything from the ground up.
Take it as you will.
3. | March 3rd, 2006 at 7:57 am
Hey Jaclyn,
Ya, on Friday, I had promised myself I’d stick it out for the whole lecture even if I had to do it buy paying attention to another course’s text book…but I just kept getting increasingly frustrated…and a couple of times I knew he could feel me glaring at him. …
…thing was I do still really like him as a professor, and I love the structure of the class which is alot of why I wanted to go talk to him: to let him know that I wasn’t glaring over all…just at the subject matter.
Icithis, a very interesting point. …which I may just have to come back to.
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed