The False Dichotomy Between Causal Realization and Semantic Computation
Streszczenie
In this paper, I show how semantic factors constrain the understanding
of the computational phenomena to be explained so that they help build
better mechanistic models. In particular, understanding what cognitive
systems may refer to is important in building better models of cognitive
processes. For that purpose, a recent study of some phenomena in rats
that are capable of ‘entertaining’ future paths (Pfeiffer and Foster 2013)
is analyzed. The case shows that the mechanistic account of physical
computation may be complemented with semantic considerations, and
in many cases, it actually should.