The Connectionist Computational Theory of Mind
While searching for adequate theories of mind one is likely to come across the connectionist version of the computational theory of mind, and it appears that, this particular theory, provides us with working models effortlessly for such cognitive capacities as rapid recognition, associative memory and categorical generalization.
The Extended Mind Hypothesis
The idea that we use pieces of our external environment to aid in our cognitive abilities has always been visible yet has remained somewhat ignored as our computational processes were always considered to be circumscribed to those that transpire under skin and skull in the biological brain. Then in 1998 Andy Clark and David Chalmers proposed a radical new form of externalism called the Extended Mind Hypothesis. Referred to as active externalism because of the active role the environment plays in driving cognitive processes it came under attack from a number of angles.
The Classical Computational Theory of Mind
There are a number of different versions of the Computational Theory of Mind (CTM) but in its classical form it states that thinking is a computational process involving mental representations. These mental representations or symbols are all contained within their own unique language, the Language of Thought (LOT). A common catch phrase often seen accompanying the classical CTM is that ‘the mind is to the brain what the program is to the hardware’ but as easy an analogy as this is for those learning about the classical CTM it also opens the theory up to a whole world of criticisms and flaws.
Political & Moral Atomism: Taylor’s Reasons For Disagreeing
Atomism was always used as a very broad term, unfortunately though it was usually used by people attacking the theory rather than supporting it, which lead to a lot of philosophers referring to atomism by other names such as individualism. Hence when it comes to defining what atomism is in the eyes of Taylor, a lot of clarification is needed to establish exactly what it is he is referring to.
Argument Summary: Stephen Pinker – How The Mind Works
Steven Pinker, in this particularly early chapter in his book, scrutinizes briefly a range of theories around the age old mind-body problem, which in turn leads us into Alan Turing and Turing machines The motivation behind discussing these is to give us an adequate launch point to discuss the computational theory of mind.
Folk Psychology Is Here To Stay
After more than 2000 years, folk psychology appears as though it is here to stay, nonetheless there are a number of philosophers, psychologists and the like who argue that folk psychology is a theory, and that that theory is false. However these people seem to jump rather quickly to this conclusion and upon closer inspection their arguments fall apart.
Emotivism & Moral Nihilism
One tends to wonder whether an emotivist view of ethics will ultimately result in a case of moral nihilism. Firstly, lets examine what exactly is emotivism and then have a look at a few problems faced by it. Emotivism is a form of non-cognitivism and was first put forward for consideration by A. J. Ayer in his book Language, Truth and Logic. Although more sophisticated versions of non-cognitivism were later penned by people such as Charles Stevenson, Simon Blackburn, Allan Gibbard and Richard Hare, Ayer’s version is the most unadorned yet still highly confrontational of these developed theories.