Tom Griffiths, "The Laws of Thought: The Quest for a Mathematical Theory of the Mind" (Henry Holt and Co., 2026)

About this episode

Tom Griffiths discusses his book on the mathematical theory of the mind and its implications for understanding thought and AI.

The Laws of Thought: The Quest for a Mathematical Theory of the Mind (Henry Holt and Co., 2026) is an exploration of the quest to use mathematics to describe the ways we think, from its origins three hundred years ago to the ideas behind modern AI systems and the ways in which they still differ from human mindsEveryone has a basic understanding of how the physical world works. We learn about physics and chemistry in school, letting us explain the world around us in terms of concepts like force, acceleration, and gravity—the Laws of Nature. But we don’t have the same fluency with concepts needed to understand the world inside us—the Laws of Thought. While the story of how mathematics has been used to reveal the mysteries of the universe is familiar, the story of how it has been used to study the mind is not.There is no one better to tell that story than Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton’s AI Lab and a renowned expert in the field of cognitive science. In this groundbreaking book, he explains the three major approaches to formalizing thought—rules and symbols, neural networks, and probability and statistics—introducing each idea through the stories of the people behind it. As…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Tom Griffiths

Topics covered

• mathematics
• cognitive science
• artificial intelligence
• theory of mind
• formalization of thought

Keywords

• mathematics
• cognitive science
• AI
• thought
• neural networks
• probability
• statistics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Princeton’s AI Lab, Henry Holt and Co.

Books & works: The Laws of Thought: The Quest for a Mathematical Theory of the Mind

More episodes of New Books in Mathematics

• Richard Elwes, "Huge Numbers: A Story of Counting Ambitiously, from 4 1/2 to Fish 7" (Basic Books, 2026) · May 22, 2026 · 1h 7m
• Drew M. Dalton, "The Matter of Evil: From Speculative Realism to Ethical Pessimism" (Northwestern UP, 2024) · May 17, 2026 · 1h 13m
• Counter-Revolutionary Puzzles with Guillermo Badia · May 11, 2026 · 33 min
• Antony Valentini, "Beyond the Quantum: A Quest for the Origin and Hidden Meaning of Quantum Mechanics" (Oxford UP, 2026) · May 5, 2026 · 1h 35m
• Raffaele Danna, "The Craft of Indo-Arabic Numerals: How Practical Arithmetic Shaped Commerce and Mathematics in Western Europe, 1200–1600" (Harvard UP, 2026) · April 28, 2026 · 1h 4m
• Antonio Padilla, "Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity" (FSG,2022) · February 15, 2026 · 1h 6m