Maley, Corey (2022) Medium Independence and the Failure of the Mechanistic Account of Computation. [Preprint]
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Abstract
Current orthodoxy takes representation to be essential to computation. However, a philosophical account of computation that does not appeal to representation would be useful, given the difficulties involved in successfully theorizing representation. Piccinini’s recent mechanistic account of computation proposes to do just that: it couches computation in terms of what certain mechanisms do without requiring the manipulation or processing of representations whatsoever (Piccinini, 2015). Most crucially, mechanisms must process medium-independent vehicles. There are two ways to understand what "medium-independence" means on this account; however, on either understanding, the account fails. Either too many things end up being counted as computational, or purportedly natural computations (e.g., neural computations) cannot be counted at all. In the end, illustrating this failure sheds some light on the way to revise the orthodoxy in the hope of a better account of computation.
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Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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Keywords: | computation, mechanism | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Computation Specific Sciences > Computation/Information General Issues > Explanation |
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Depositing User: | Dr. Corey Maley | ||||||
Date Deposited: | 24 Dec 2022 16:05 | ||||||
Last Modified: | 24 Dec 2022 16:05 | ||||||
Item ID: | 21586 | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Computation Specific Sciences > Computation/Information General Issues > Explanation |
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Date: | 2022 | ||||||
URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/21586 |
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