Cognition expert to lecture on pivotal role of analogy

A Pulitzer Prize-winning expert and professor in cognitive science will speak Monday (Sept. 14) about the role of analogy during a talk presented by the Mathematical and Computational Cognitive Science area in the Department of Psychological Sciences.

Douglas Hofstadter, professor of cognitive science at Indiana University, will speak on "Analogy as the Core of Cognition" at 12:30 p.m. in the North Ballroom of Purdue Memorial Union. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Hofstadter contends that the culture's notion of analogy as a grand intellectual achievement overlooks how analogies of humbler natures are ubiquitous. Further, once a person begins to recognize how this is so, a change of perspective about the essence of thinking can follow.

In 1980, his book "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" (published in 1979) won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and a National Book Award (at that time called the American Book Award) for Science. His 2007 book "I Am a Strange Loop" won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology.

Hofstadter's research focuses on the sense of "I", consciousness, analogy making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics.

For more information, contact either of these faculty members: Sebastien Helie at shelie@purdue.edu or Zygmunt Pizlo at zpizlo@purdue.edu.