2013 Killam Prize winner explores the mind through philosophy, science

Paul Thagard, Professor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo.

You can’t figure out how the mind works just by being an engineer, a neuroscientist, a philosopher or a psychologist, says Paul Thagard. You have to pull them all together.

Thagard, a professor of philosophy in the Faculty of Arts, is the winner of the 2013 Killam Prize for the humanities.

The director of the University of Waterloo’s cognitive science program uses computer models to develop new models of human emotion and consciousness. The research offers insight not only into how people make decisions, but how emotion influences cognition — for better or for worse — and relates that to real-world challenges.

“It’s not just, ‘Does climate change exist?’ but ‘Why should we care about it and what should we do about it?’ ” Better understanding of emotion and decision-making requires both science and philosophy, he says.

With a PhD in philosophy, Thagard believes that better answers to age-old questions about knowledge, reality and morality can be achieved by applying scientific principles to research. Encounters with cognitive scientists at the University of Michigan led him to pursue a Master’s degree in computer science, allowing him to build his own computer models of the human brain.

“There’s a traditional divide between the humanities on one side and science on the other, and I never thought that divide was very natural.”

Bridging that divide is something Waterloo does well, he says. The Killam Prize “shows that the Waterloo style of doing things is actually very relevant to the humanities.”

Thagard’s dual expertise in philosophy and computer science make him a leader in the cognitive science field, and the quest to better understand the mind, says Andrew Brook, a chancellor’s professor of philosophy and cognitive science at Carleton University, who nominated Thagard for the Killam.

“He really exemplifies that mission better than almost anyone else alive.”

Brook says that Thagard’s work has shown that many developments in scientific theory can be understood computationally. Much of his work involves how complex systems make decisions, and explores the kinds of decisions they make.

“He is Canada’s most respected and influential cognitive scientist,” Brook says.

Considered the Canadian equivalent to the Nobels, the Killam Prize honours lifetime achievement in research.

Five are awarded each year:

·      Natural Sciences

·      Health Sciences

·      Humanities

·      Engineering

·      Social Sciences

Thagard is the fourth University of Waterloo researcher to win the prize, and the second in two years from Waterloo’s Faculty of Arts. Thagard recommended to the awards committee that the university nominate Mark Zanna for the 2011 Killam Prize in social science for his groundbreaking and influential work in the field of psychology. Previous winners include Ming Li, a professor of computer science, and William Tutte, a professor of combinatorics and optimization.

Free to spend the $100,000 prize as he sees fit, Thagard has chosen to earmark the money for ongoing research.