Nominator's statement

Presents Hayek's co-discovery of the Hebb-Hayek synaptic connection model of learning, memory and classification (e.g. the so called Hebb-rule, Hebbian synapse or cell assembly model). Continues to influence at highest level of theorizing the work of such important neuroscientists as Gerald Edelman and Joaquin Fuster. For quotes by Edelman, Fuster, and others, go to http://www.hayekcenter.org/friedrichhayek/qs-neuro.html

comments

• The body of the text dates to September 1920, when Hayek was a student at the University of Vienna. Yet when the book was published, it was still advanced due to several reasons: (1) It offers an explanation of the mechanism by which the human mind classifies sense perceptions. (2) This explanation does not rely on the then dominant behaviorist theory, but takes up and corrects Ernst Mach's theory. (3) It takes into account physiological research involving the functioning of the brain. (4) The explanation appeals only to physiological laws, yet addresses the problem of human consciousness. (5) It is the first coherent neural network modeling of the mind - except for Hebb's The Organization of Behavior, which appeared three years previously. This almost made Hayek give up the project of publishing his theory that was much older. (5) Apart from being a psychology of perception, the book offers a mind-body theory that prompted Karl Popper to criticize it since it was, in Popper's words, "causal", (i.e., deterministic) and as such could not explain the higher functions of language that Popper, following Karl Buehler, distinguishes. (6) Together with Hebb's book, Hayek's was one of the sources of inspiration of neural network models.