The false dichotomy between causal realization and semantic computation

Marcin Miłkowski

doi:10.18778/1689-4286.38.02

Autor

Marcin Miłkowski Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1689-4286.38.02

Słowa kluczowe:

physical computation, semantic account of computation, mechanistic account of computation, mechanistic explanation, causal realization

Abstrakt

In this paper, I show how semantic factors constrain the understanding of the computational phenomena to be explained so that they help build better mechanistic models. In particular, understanding what cognitive systems may refer to is important in building better models of cognitive processes. For that purpose, a recent study of some phenomena in rats that are capable of ‘entertaining’ future paths (Pfeiffer and Foster 2013) is analyzed. The case shows that the mechanistic account of physical computation may be complemented with semantic considerations, and in many cases, it actually should.

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