Origins of Representations: Cognitive and Brain Development

Athanassios Raftopoulos is Professor of Epistemology and Cognitive Science at the Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus and holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University (2002). He also gained: a Diploma (DEA) in Philosophy from the University of Sorbonne, a MA in Philosophy and History of Science from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Bsc in Physics and BA In Philosophy and Psychology, from the University of Thessaloniki. Professor Raftopoulos research interests cover Philosophy of Perception, Cognitive penetrability of perception and the epistemic role of Perception, Philosophy of Science, and Epistemology. He published two monographs on Philosophy and Epistemology of Perception with MIT and Palgrave Macmillan, respectively, edited, and co-edited seven books on the above-mentioned topics, with various publishers, including Oxford and Cambridge University Press. He is an Advisory Editor of the book series SAPERE, published by Springer, and he is the author of more than 100 papers and book chapters. In addition, he has delivered numerous talks and plenary lectures at conferences.

• Introduction.- Signs and Representations.- Symbolic Representations.- Analog or Iconic Representations.- From Non-representational Indices to Representational Icons; What is Cognitively required for Representations and Icons?.- The Road to Symbols; Why Symbols?.- Cognitive Capacities and Symbol Usage.