...cognitive psychology rests on the theory that the mind is a computer. — AJJ
Well, that's part of the problem there. If you want to understand what Evolutionary Psychology is, the best person to ask would be an Evolutionary Psychologist, not a Christian Philosopher.I read about this first bit in Edward Feser’s Philosophy of Mind.
My limited understanding of evolutionary psychology... — AJJ
Influential evolutionary psychologists, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, provide the following list of the field’s theoretical tenets (2005):
1. The brain is a computer designed by natural selection to extract information from the environment.
2. Individual human behavior is generated by this evolved computer in response to information it extracts from the environment. Understanding behavior requires articulating the cognitive programs that generate the behavior.
3. The cognitive programs of the human brain are adaptations. They exist because they produced behavior in our ancestors that enabled them to survive and reproduce.
4. The cognitive programs of the human brain may not be adaptive now; they were adaptive in ancestral environments.
5. Natural selection ensures that the brain is composed of many different special purpose programs and not a domain general architecture.
6. Describing the evolved computational architecture of our brains “allows a systematic understanding of cultural and social phenomena” (18). — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Computers are a particular kind of information processor. Brains are a particular kind of information processor - an environmental sensory information processor.Computers are observer-relative phenomena. Nothing is a computer unless we deem it to be so and use it to compute. In and of itself, a computer is just a bundle of materials and electrical signals; that they constitute a computer is derived from our perception and use of those things. — AJJ
Well, that's part of the problem there. If you want to understand what Evolutionary Psychology is, the best person to ask would be an Evolutionary Psychologist, not a Christian Philosopher. — Harry Hindu
My limited understanding of evolutionary psychology is that it is a combination of evolutionary theory and cognitive psychology, and that cognitive psychology rests on the theory that the mind is a computer. If I have this right, does the above not render evolutionary psychology a pseudo-science? — AJJ
No. — VagabondSpectre
Evolutionary psychology tends to treat minds and brains as black-boxes, where it seeks to explain the practical or evolutionary purpose of behaviors, not the internal mechanism that generates them. It's more behaviorism than it is neuroscience, and whether or not "the brain is a computer" is totally irrelevant to evolutionary psychology — VagabondSpectre
The brain is a computer designed by natural selection to extract information from the environment.
Regarding cognitive psychology, brains do actually do calculations, but calling them "computers" is a misnomer. The fact is, we have biological neural networks in our brain that are capable of coming up with solutions to problems like "what's 10 + 10?". (and we also have biology-inspired artificial neural networks that are capable of doing the same thing). — VagabondSpectre
You just seem to be intuitively rejecting the idea that the brain is a computer, and you offer objections like "computers cannot operate themselves".... — VagabondSpectre
What if the mind is more complicated that "is a computer or is not a computer?" What if different parts of the brain do different kinds of things, such that one part of our brain can operate another part? (E.G: when our conscious minds want to access memories or perform a calculation, maybe it accesses other parts of the brain as if to exploit their computational ability). — VagabondSpectre
Dualists would be the most ardent opposition to such a theory for obvious reasons. — Harry Hindu
The brain is a computer designed by natural selection to extract information from the environment.
So according to you their first tenet is irrelevant to their study. — AJJ
The brain doesn’t do calculations for the same reason computers don’t. It’s all electrical signals, and electrical signals are just that - electrical signals. It’s only in our minds that they mean anything. — AJJ
Eh? I don’t see how this addresses the OP.
I don’t actually want this kind of argument so I’d just like to draw a line under this now. — AJJ
Computers are observer-relative phenomena. Nothing is a computer unless we deem it to be so and use it to compute. In and of itself, a computer is just a bundle of materials and electrical signals; that they constitute a computer is derived from our perception and use of those things.
It follows from the above that the mind cannot be a computer. If we deem our minds to be computers, we are doing this with our minds. The mind is always a step beyond the designation of “computer”. — AJJ
Our cognitive architecture is composed of computational devices, that are innate and are adaptations (cf. Samuels 1998; Samuels et al. 1999a; Samuels et al. 1999b; Samuels 2000)
The relationship which obtains between brain and mind is one of correlation, not causation. However, you are free to cite credible scientific research to the contrary.I would say the brain is used by our minds to compute things. — AJJ
In its most general sense, a computer is an input-output processor.The brain isn’t doing any computing per se, just reacting to stimuli. — AJJ
The relationship which obtains between brain and mind is one of correlation, not causation. However, you are free to cite credible scientific research to the contrary. — Galuchat
In its most general sense, a computer is an input-output processor.
Brains receive exogenous and/or endogenous neural signals from sense organs (input), perform sensory processing at relevant locations, and produce environmental or corporeal state perception (output). — Galuchat
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