A familiar trope of cognitive science, linguistics, and the philosophy of psychology over the past forty or so years has been the idea of the mind as a modular system-that is, one consisting of functionally specialized subsystems responsible for processing different classes of input, or handling specific cognitive tasks like vision, language, logic, music, and so on. However, one of the major achievements of neuroscience has been the discovery that the brain has incredible powers of renewal and reorganization. This "neuroplasticity," in its various forms, has challenged many of the orthodox conceptions of the mind which originally led cognitive scientists to postulate hardwired mental modules. This book examines how such discoveries have changed the way we think about the structure of the mind. It contends that the mind is more supple than prevailing theories in cognitive science and artificial intelligence acknowledge. The book uses language as a test case. The claim that language is cognitively special has often been understood as the claim that it is underpinned by dedicated-and innate-cognitive mechanisms. Zerilli offers a fresh take on how our linguistic abilities could be domain-general: enabled by a composite of very small and redundant cognitive subsystems, few if any of which are likely to be specialized for language. In arguing for this position, however, the book takes seriously various cases suggesting that language dissociates from other cognitive faculties. Accessibly written, The Adaptable Mind is a fascinating account of neuroplasticity, neural reuse, the modularity of mind, the evolution of language, and faculty psychology.

About the Author
John Zerilli is a philosopher with particular interests in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and the law. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, in the University of Cambridge, and from 2021 will be a Leverhulme Trust Fellow at the University of Oxford.

Reviews
Zerilli (Univ. of Oxford) provides a pithy, readable account of salience and neural reuse in modeling cognitive activities related to language ... a useful introduction to the neural reuse literature. Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. * G. C. Gamst, University of La Verne, CHOICE *
The prose is clear, succinct and lively. In many places it tips over into elegance. Indeed the exposition is so clear that, although I'm a cognitive scientist rather than a philosopher, I learned a good deal from reading it. Zerilli is equally at home with neural and behavioural data, and well-informed about the history of neuroscience. Overall, this book provides a clear, rigorous, well-informed examination of how we should conceive of modularity in the light of recent evidence of neural reuse. Many of the lines of argument are original and likely to make a valuable contribution to enquiry about modularity in general, and the modularity of language in particular." * Cecilia Heyes, All Souls College, Oxford *
The book provides a thoroughly researched and well-written review of the literature on brain modularity. It lays out the various possible positions in the debate, and the sorts of evidence that might push proponents into one or another of the locations in the landscape of ideas, with admirable clarity. It is beautifully executed and will prove to be an extremely useful guide to anyone in the field, but especially, I think, for younger scholars looking for a way into the debate. I will certainly be assigning it in my graduate seminars." * Michael L. Anderson, Rotman Institute of Philosophy, Western University *
One of the most outstanding features of this book is the quality and clarity of its argument, especially concerning the number of fields and complex subjects it ranges across-from neuropsychology, to linguistics and cognitive neuroscience. This is a complex and technical field, but Zerilli's control of the concepts and evidence is masterful." * Richard Menary, Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University *



Book Information
ISBN 9780190067885
Author John Zerilli
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 155mm * 236mm * 15mm