Paul Thagard is a philosopher, cognitive scientist, and author of many interdisciplinary books. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, where he founded and directed the Cognitive Science Program. He is a graduate of the Universities of Saskatchewan, Cambridge, Toronto (PhD in philosophy) and Michigan (MS in computer science). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Cognitive Science Society, and the Association for Psychological Science. The Canada Council has awarded him a Molson Prize (2007) and a Killam Prize (2013). His books include: The Cognitive Science of Science: Explanation, Discovery, and Conceptual Change (MIT Press, 2012); The Brain and the Meaning of Life ((Princeton University Press, 2010); Hot Thought: Mechanisms and Applications of Emotional Cognition (MIT Press, 2006); and Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science (MIT Press, 1996; second edition, 2005). Oxford University Press published his 3-book Treatise on Mind and Society in 2019. In 2021, MIT Press published his Bots and Beasts: What Makes Machines, Animals, and People Smart? In 2022, Columbia University Press published: Balance: How It Works and What It Means.
In 2024, Columbia University Press published Falsehoods Fly: Why Misinformation Spreads and How to Stop It.
In July, 2025, Oxford University Press published Dreams, Jokes, and Songs: How Brains Builds Consciousness.
In press: AI Boom or Doom? Philosophy and Psychology of the New Artificial Intelligence, MIT Press.
In progress: Matter over Mind: Philosophy and Psychology of Ozempic.
CV: vita.25AU6
Previous home page at the University of Waterloo
Google Scholar profile.
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This page updated Oct. 7, 2025.
Paul Thagard 