[from Gary Cziko 2008.11.16 1729 CST]
Bill Powers said:
Under the What Is PCT tab, I looked at the selection from Gary Cziko’s
book Without Miracles, Chapter 8. I wonder if I was awake the first time
I read it. This is one of the finest introductions to PCT ever written,
full of great examples and explanations and just plain good writing. It
makes the best case possible for discarding the old stimulus-response
view. I know David Goldstein has has some problems getting colleagues to
make that step, and this chapter should help a lot. It should be required
reading for introductory courses in PCT at any level through graduate
school. And after.
Thanks, Bill (direct link to chapter at http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/g-cziko/wm/08.html). I wrote this to explain to myself what PCT was all about. Glad to see that it you like it and that Tracy (and hopefully some others) have found it explanatory as well.
Rick Marken said:
I know. I felt the same way when I first read Gary’s books. It was
like "What’s going on here; great examples; great organization; great
writing; is this the Gary Cziko I know"? . . .
After I read some of my stuff I am also disappointed by myself in person. Writing gives you a long time to think about things and lots of opportunities to revise what you say to make it sound good. So you can concentrate what you know and your ability to express it which is much harder to do in real time. Maybe someday I’ll learn to think faster!
Tracy Harms said:
Chapter 8 of Without Miracles was my initial exposure to PCT, and I
found it lucid and convincing. It’s an important contribution to the
literature. Its presentation as a component within the larger field of
evolutionary theories deserves special attention. The explanatory
power of PCT is more easily appreciated in that context. Thus, while
that chapter does indeed stand on its own very nicely, it makes a more
forceful case by being embedded within the larger book.
Thanks for the plug for the book. The entire Without Miracles (1995) is available free on the web at http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/g-cziko/wm/. My second book, The Things We Do (2000) is also available at http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/g-cziko/twd/ and it considers PCT, particularly in Chapters 5, 6, and 10.
–Gary