Facchin, Marco (2021) Troubles with mathematical contents. [Preprint]

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Abstract

To account for the explanatory role representations play in
cognitive science, Egan’s deflationary account introduces a
distinction between cognitive and mathematical contents.
According to that account, only the latter are genuine
explanatory posits of cognitive-scientific theories, as they
represent the arguments and values cognitive devices need to
represent to compute. Here, I argue that the deflationary
account suffers from two important problems, whose roots trace
back to the introduction of mathematical contents. First, I will
argue that mathematical contents do not satisfy important and
widely accepted desiderata all theories of content are called to
satisfy, such as content determinacy and naturalism. Secondly, I
will claim that there are cases in which mathematical contents
cannot play the explanatory role the deflationary account claims
they play, proposing an empirical counterexample. Lastly, I will
conclude the paper highlighting two important implications of my
arguments, concerning recent theoretical proposals to naturalize
representations via physical computation, and the popular
predictive processing theory of cognition

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Facchin, Marco marco.facchin@iusspavia.it 0000-0001-5753-9873
Keywords:	Representation, Content, Mathematical contents, Computation, Implementation, Adversarial examples.
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Neuroscience > Cognitive Neuroscience Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Computation General Issues > Computer Simulation Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence > Machine Learning
Depositing User:	Dr. Marco Facchin
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2022 13:00
Last Modified:	19 Jul 2022 13:00
Item ID:	20929
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Neuroscience > Cognitive Neuroscience Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Computation General Issues > Computer Simulation Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence > Machine Learning
Date:	2021
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20929

Available Versions of this Item

• Troubles with mathematical contents. (deposited 05 Nov 2021 04:12)
  • Troubles with mathematical contents. (deposited 25 Mar 2022 04:26)
    • Troubles with mathematical contents. (deposited 19 Jul 2022 13:00) [Currently Displayed]

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