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History of the program | Symbolic Systems Program
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class="menu-item--active-trail">About</span></h2> <ul class="hb-secondary-nav__menu hb-secondary-nav__menu hb-secondary-nav__menu-lv1 hb-secondary-nav__menu-lv1"><li class="hb-secondary-nav__item"><a href="/about/span-dig-deep-solve-complex-problems" class="hb-secondary-nav__link" hreflang="en" data-drupal-link-system-path="node/10711">Overview</a></li><li class="hb-secondary-nav__item"><a href="/about/whats-name" class="hb-secondary-nav__link" hreflang="en" data-drupal-link-system-path="node/86">What's in a name?</a></li><li class="hb-secondary-nav__item hb-secondary-nav__item--parent hb-secondary-nav__item--active-trail"><a href="/about/history-program" class="hb-secondary-nav__link is-active" hreflang="en" data-drupal-link-system-path="node/91" aria-current="page">History</a><button class="hb-secondary-nav__button hb-secondary-toggler" id="History171" aria-expanded="true"> Toggle History </button><div class="hb-secondary-nav__menu-container" aria-labelledby="History171"><ul 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data-drupal-link-system-path="node/121">Contact Us</a></li></ul> </nav> </div> <div class="hb-layout-builder-main-content hb-three-column__main"> <div class="hb-three-column__main-body "> <div class="layout__region"> <div id="main-content" tabindex="-1" class="visually-hidden">Main content start</div> <div class="block-layout-builder"> <div class="title string label-hidden node__title"><h1>History of the program</h1> </div> </div> <div class="block-layout-builder"> <div class="hb-raised-cards hb-raised-cards--uniform-height field-hs-page-components entity-reference-revisions label-hidden"> <div class="paragraph-item ptype-hs-text-area"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--hs-text-area paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="color- field-hs-text-area text-long label-hidden"><h2>It all started way back in 1985.</h2> <p class="decanter-font-lead"><span>That鈥檚 when faculty from philosophy, linguistics, computer science, and psychology decided that Stanford needed a new major鈥攐ne devoted to the interdisciplinary study of mind, language, computation, and logic.</span></p> <h2>Why 1985 you ask?</h2> <p dir="ltr"><span>By 1985 the so-called cognitive revolution, with its decisive move away from behaviorism, had long been gathering steam. Like many revolutions, it was reshaping the way many researchers in diverse fields went about their daily work. And inevitably, it also began to influence the way they thought about educating their students. </span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>1985 was also the year in which Howard Gardner crystalized not just the history of the cognitive revolution, but many of its principles and achievements, in his landmark book </span><em>The Mind鈥檚 New Science</em><span>. And just a few years earlier in 1979, Douglas Hofstadter鈥檚 book </span><em>G枚del, Escher, Bach, </em><span>was awakening a hunger in many young and ambitious students for the kind of education that the Symbolic Systems Program was designed to provide.</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>While the obvious choice for the new program name was Cognitive Science, we selected Symbolic Systems instead...which is </span><a href="/about/whats-name">another story in and of itself</a><span>. </span></p> <h2>What鈥檚 changed since then?</h2> <p dir="ltr"><span>For one thing, we鈥檝e grown tremendously. The first cohort of Symbolic Systems majors could be called, the few, the proud and the bold. They were pioneers bravely exploring a new approach to the study of logic, language, thought, and computation. Today, we are one of the largest majors at Stanford, with a truly distinguished group of </span><a href="/about/alumni">alumni</a><span>. Many of them are still pioneers, leading the way in a truly diverse array of fields, creating transformative technological innovations as welling as groundbreaking theoretical work. </span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span>Our core requirements have changed a bit over the years, mostly to keep up with ever changing times. We have also reshaped our concentrations from time to time. No doubt more changes are still to come in the years ahead. But one thing will never change: our commitment to training students to approach hard problems from multiple disciplinary perspectives鈥攔igorously, systematically, and simultaneously. </span></p> <h2>More history...</h2> <p dir="ltr">Below are some links to additional pages about the history of our Program.</p> <ul dir="ltr"> <li><a href="https://symsys.stanford.edu/symbolic-systems-distinguished-speakers">Symbolic Systems Distinguished Speaker Lectures</a></li> <li><a href="https://symsys.stanford.edu/thomas-wasow-visiting-scholars-symbolic-systems">Wasow Visiting Scholars in Symbolic Systems</a></li> <li><a href="https://symsys.stanford.edu/stanford-university-undergraduate-honors-thesis-prizes-symbolic-systems-recipients">Stanford University Undergraduate Honors Thesis Prizes - Symbolic Systems Recipients</a></li> <li><a href="https://symsys.stanford.edu/glushko-prize-excellence-undergraduate-research-symbolic-systems" hreflang="en">Glushko Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Research in Symbolic Systems</a></li> <li><a href="https://symsys.stanford.edu/barwise-award-distinguished-contributions-symbolic-systems" hreflang="en">Barwise Award for Distinguished Contributions to Symbolic Systems</a></li> <li><a href="https://symsys.stanford.edu/symbolic-systems-distinguished-teaching-award" hreflang="en">Symbolic Systems Distinguished Teaching Award</a></li> <li>Annual Vote for <a href="https://symsys.stanford.edu/symbol-year-and-other-notable-symbols-annual-vote">Symbol of the Year and Other Notable Symbols</a></li> </ul></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="block-back-to-top"> <a href="#header" class="hs-back-to-top">Back to Top</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div><!-- /.content --> </article><!-- /.node --> </div> </main> <footer id="footer"> <section id="footer__local-footer" class="hb-local-footer hb-default-pattern"> <div class="hb-page-width flex-container flex-container--row-gap"> <div id="block-humsci-colorful-custm-footerlogo" 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