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.
Descarte’s Dualistic Dilemma
For Descartes, dualism was a logical attempt to explain that which could not be explained in purely physical terms, however as time has gone by, the idea that a non-physical, non-spatial mind stuff with no extension could causally interact and affect a purely physical body has lost a lot of its force. It is likely that as time goes on we will see breakthroughs that will force dualists to accept that the mind is actually a purely physical part of the brain.
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.
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.
Into The Mind
