Citation

Bistricky SL. Behav. Sci. (Basel) 2013; 3(2): 217-231.

Affiliation

Department of Clinical Health and Applied Sciences, University of Houston-Clear Lake, 2700 Bay Area Boulevard, Houston, TX 77058, USA; E-Mail: bistricky@uhcl.edu ; Tel.: +1-281-283-3439.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/bs3020217

PMID

25379235

PMCID

PMC4217623

Abstract

Attempts to define cognition preceded John Stuart Mill's life and continue to this day. John Stuart Mill envisioned a science of mental phenomena informed by associationism, empirical introspection, and neurophysiology, and he advanced specific ideas that still influence modern conceptions of cognition. The present article briefly reviews Mill's personal history and the times in which he lived, and it traces the evolution of ideas that have run through him to contemporary cognitive concepts. The article also highlights contemporary problems in defining cognition and supports specific criteria regarding what constitutes cognition.

Language: en