Zenon Pylyshyn
Canadian cognitive scientist who critiqued pictorial theories of mental imagery.
Most quoted
"Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field, drawing on psychology, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and neuroscience."
— from Computation and Cognition: Toward a Foundation for Cognitive Science, 1984
"The problem of binding, how different features of an object are integrated, is a fundamental challenge in vision science."
— from Seeing and Visualizing: It's Not What You Think, 2003
"The explanatory power of a theory depends on its ability to account for the systematicity and productivity of cognition."
— from Computation and Cognition: Toward a Foundation for Cognitive Science, 1984
All quotes by Zenon Pylyshyn (102)
Mental representations are abstract, not iconic.
Life's meaning lies in the pursuit of understanding the mind.
Humor in science: sometimes the best theory is the one that makes you laugh at your own mistakes.
Politics of the mind: who controls the narrative of cognition?
Art imitates life, but cognition imitates computation.
Wisdom begins with questioning the obvious in perception.
In letters to colleagues, I often say: doubt is the engine of discovery.
From my major work: the FINST index allows direct access without search.
Interview quip: Cognitive science is philosophy with better tools.
On life: Aging sharpens the mind if you keep computing.
Professional note: Encapsulation protects cognitive modules from interference.
Aphorism: The brain is a computer, but the mind is its software poetry.
Key passage: Systematicity demands compositional representations.
Correspondence: To Turing's legacy, we owe our digital minds.
Speech excerpt: Let's not confuse correlation with causation in neural nets.
Witty remark: If minds were cameras, we'd all be out of focus.
Observation: AI will mimic but not master human intuition soon.
Reflection: Meaning emerges from the interaction of symbols.
Famous saying: Demystify the mind through computation.
From 'Seeing and Visualizing': Propositions, not pictures, drive thought.
Contemporaries of Zenon Pylyshyn
Other Cognitive Sciences born within 50 years of Zenon Pylyshyn (1937–2022).