The Problem of Naturalizing Representations

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Mark and Mazviita discuss the philosophy and science of mind, and how to think about computations with respect to understanding minds. Current approaches to explaining brain function are dominated by computational models and the computer metaphor for brain and mind. But there are alternative ways to think about the relation between computations and brain function, which we explore in the discussion. We also talk about the role of philosophy broadly and with respect to mind sciences, pluralism and perspectival approaches to truth and understanding, the prospects and desirability of naturalizing representations (accounting for how brain representations relate to the natural world), and much more.

• Mark's website.
• Mazviita's University of Edinburgh page.
• Twitter (Mark): @msprevak.
• Mazviita's previous Brain Inspired episode:
  • BI 072 Mazviita Chirimuuta: Understanding, Prediction, and Reality
• The related book we discuss:
  • The Routledge Handbook of the Computational Mind 2018 Mark Sprevak Matteo Colombo (Editors)

0:00 - Intro 5:26 - Philosophy contributing to mind science 15:45 - Trend toward hyperspecialization 21:38 - Practice-focused philosophy of science 30:42 - Computationalism 33:05 - Philosophy of mind: identity theory, functionalism 38:18 - Computations as descriptions 41:27 - Pluralism and perspectivalism 54:18 - How much of brain function is computation? 1:02:11 - AI as computationalism 1:13:28 - Naturalizing representations 1:30:08 - Are you doing it right?