Images and Reasoning

This book proposes an interdisciplinary view of the non-linguistic aspects of reasoning. It is based on the symposium "Images,reason and reasoning" held in Paris on March 15, 2004 and co-organized by Keio University and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris. The papers focus on the cases where reasoning has to deal with images, is performed through visuospatial cognitive processes, or performed by animals. The term "reasoning" is understood in a broad sense and covers topics such as categorization, infererence in humans and animals, mathematical thinking. The aim of the book is to raise the issue of the continuity between human and animal reasoning and to provide new grounds to think about language as a necessary condition for inferences.