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Minds, Models and Milieux: Commemorating the Centennial of the Birth of Herbert Simon

Coming soon — contributors include Katherine Simon Frank, Robert Rupert, Gerd Gigerenzer, Ron Sun, Morris Altman, Massimo Egidi, Mie Augier and several others. This book is a collection of specially commissioned chapters from philosophers, economists, political and behavioral economists, cognitive and organizational psychologists, computer scientists, sociologists and permutations thereof as befits the polymathic subject of this book – Herbert Simon. The tripartite…

Bertrand Russell

Born on this day. It just so happens that while writing on Herbert Simon today I was reminded of Russell who, on hearing from Simon about his “thinking machine” that proved theorems from Principia Mathematica, responded: “I am delighted to know that ‘Principia Mathematica’ can now be done by machinery. I wish Whitehead and I had known of this…

The World of Yesterday

“The greatest curse brought down on us by technology is that it prevents us from escaping the present even for a brief time. Previous generations could retreat into solitude and seclusion when disaster struck; it was our fate to be aware of everything catastrophic happening everywhere in the world at the hour and the second…

CFP: Cosmos + Taxis

The interdisciplinary journal Cosmos + Taxis is issuing a call for papers for its second conference on spontaneous orders, to be held at the Rochester Institute of Technology from May 8 to May 9, 2015. Both days will feature morning and afternoon sessions and informal lunches and dinners. The theme of the conference is “Spontaneous…

Bounded Rationality Updated

Special issue of Mind & Society. (H/T to Francesco Di Iorio) From April 8th to 10th 2013, the Herbert Simon Society held its first General Conference in New York. About fifty researchers from different countries and working in different areas attended the event. The conference focused on three topics which were identified as particularly relevant in…

Constructivist and Ecological Rationality in Economics

All those interested in extended mind/externalist/situated type thought should be aware of the field of Behavioral Economics (BE) in general and the work of Vernon Smith in particular. BE is a body of literature that was ploughing this trough some twenty years before the hypothesis of extended cognition took root in cognitive science. It is interesting…

Herbert Simon

Since I missed marking the birth of Simon on the 15th, here’s a belated posting of an obituary by his student Edward A. Feigenbaum. (I’m pleased to report that my co-edited project with Roger Frantz commemorating the centenary of HS’s birth is coming together very nicely. HS’s daughter has been incredibly responsive towards the project). Herbert…