O'Connor, Cailin (2015) Evolving Perceptual Categories. Philosophy of Science, 81 (5). pp. 110-121.

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Abstract

This paper uses sim-max games to model perceptual categorization with the goal of answering the following question: to what degree should we expect the perceptual categories of biological actors to track properties of the world around them? I will argue that an analysis of these games suggests that the relationship between real-world structure and evolved perceptual categories is mediated by successful action in the sense that organisms evolve to categorize together states of nature for which similar actions lead to similar results. This conclusion indicates that both strongly realist and strongly anti-realist views about perceptual categories are too simple.

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Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID O'Connor, Cailin cailino@uci.edu
Keywords:	evolution, perception, perceptual categories, categorization, signaling, signaling games, sim-max games, color, philosophy of color, evolution of color, philosophy of biology, philosophy of cognitive science
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science Specific Sciences > Economics
Depositing User:	Dr. Cailin O'Connor
Date Deposited:	10 Dec 2015 13:26
Last Modified:	03 May 2016 17:30
Item ID:	11805
Journal or Publication Title:	Philosophy of Science
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Official URL:	http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/677885
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science Specific Sciences > Economics
Date:	2015
Page Range:	pp. 110-121
Volume:	81
Number:	5
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11805

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