Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Series | Book | Chapter

191448

Regarding representations

Anne J. Jacobson

pp. 7-29

Abstract

What makes these different theories – from Aristotle, Aquinas, Hume and current cognitive neuroscience – all theories about the mind or brain sampling the world? Hobbes certainly did not see himself as updating Aquinas and Aristotle in such a direct fashion, but he might have. This is because we can find a sense to saying that the patterns in the two domains – world and brain – are the same. And the sameness here is mathematico-empirical inter-derivability (Dayan & Abbott, 2001). That is, there is a description of the environmental cause from which, given the appropriate empirical algorithms, a description of the effect can be derived and vice versa. At the core of sampling theories is a notion of instantiating the same things, forms, qualities or patterns of activity.

Publication details

Published in:

Jacobson Anne J. (2013) Keeping the world in mind: mental representations and the sciences of the mind. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 7-29

DOI: 10.1057/9781137315588_2

Full citation:

Jacobson Anne J. (2013) Regarding representations, In: Keeping the world in mind, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 7–29.