Making too many enemies: Hutto and Myin’s attack on computationalism

Kuokkanen, Jesse; Rusanen, Anna-Mari

doi:10.1080/13869795.2018.1477980

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…They express certain properties … while ignoring others … [C]omputational descriptions of concrete physical systems are mathematical and thus abstract in the same sense" (Piccinini, 2015, 9). This idea has among other things been called epistemic abstraction (Kuokkanen & Rusanen, 2018). However, as this carries unnecessary connotations, I call it descriptive abstraction.…”

Section: Mechanistic Account Of Physical Computationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, MAC as a single hierarchy view has a more fundamental problem. MAC seems to lean on so-called descriptive abstraction (Kuokkanen & Rusanen, 2018;Kuokkanen, under review), which means the omission of detail from the description of a system. 10 Piccinini (2015) uses a pineapple and a Dell Latitude laptop as examples.…”

Section: The Non-problems and The Problem Of Mac As A Single Hierarch...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, even if the arguments from explanatory value and multiple realizability were resolved, this might be cold comfort for the single hierarchy view as there might be a deeper, more fundamental problem built into the idea of MAC as a single hierarchy view as described by Elber-Dorozko & Shagrir. The problem is that MAC seems to rely on so-called descriptive abstraction when it comes to the relation between implementational and computational or mathematical properties (Kuokkanen & Rusanen, 2018). Descriptive abstraction excludes implementational detail from the system's description and includes only computationally relevant properties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No computation without implementation? A potential problem for the single hierarchy view of physical computation

Kuokkanen

2022

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The so-called integration problem concerning mechanistic and computational explanation asks how they are related to each other. One approach is that a computational explanation is a species of mechanistic explanation. According to this view, computational or mathematical descriptions are mechanism sketches or macroscopic descriptions that include computationally relevant and exclude computationally irrelevant physical properties. Some suggest that this results in a so-called single hierarchy view of physical computation, where computational or mathematical properties sit together in the same mechanistic hierarchy with the implementational properties. This view can be contrasted with a separate hierarchy view, according to which computational and physical descriptions have their own hierarchies which are related to each other via a bridging implementation relation. The single hierarchy view has been criticized for downplaying the explanatory value of computational explanations and not being hospitable to multiple realization of cognitive processes. In this paper, I argue that (1) the aforementioned criticisms fail, and (2) there might be a deeper problem with the single hierarchy view, which is that the single hierarchy view might collapse into a separate hierarchy view. The kind of abstraction used by the single hierarchy view does not seem to grant mathematical or computational descriptions but only more stripped physical or implementational descriptions.

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Section: Mechanistic Account Of Physical Computationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Non-problems and The Problem Of Mac As A Single Hierarch...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No computation without implementation? A potential problem for the single hierarchy view of physical computation

Kuokkanen

2022

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Vertical-horizontal distinction in resolving the abstraction, hierarchy, and generality problems of the mechanistic account of physical computation

Kuokkanen

2022

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Descriptive abstraction means omission of information from descriptions of phenomena. In this paper, I introduce a distinction between vertical and horizontal descriptive abstraction. Vertical abstracts away levels of mechanism or organization, while horizontal abstracts away details within one level of organization. The distinction is implicit in parts of the literature, but it has received insufficient attention and gone mainly unnoticed. I suggest that the distinction can be used to clarify how computational descriptions are formed in some variants of the mechanistic account of physical computation. Furthermore, I suggest that, if this suggestion is adopted, it can be used to resolve what I call abstraction, hierarchy, and generality problems raised against mechanistic account of physical computation. According to the abstraction problem, the mechanistic account of physical computation is conceptually confused in claiming that physical systems process computational, abstract properties. An existing solution distinguishes between descriptive and metaphysical abstraction, suggesting that the abstraction problem unnecessarily postulates metaphysically abstract entities. The solution has been criticized for leading to what I call hierarchy and generality problems: it results in two separate hierarchies, one physical and one computational, making it problematic both to account for the generality of computational descriptions and to specify how the two hierarchies are related to each other. Adopting the vertical-horizontal distinction and the view that computational descriptions are achieved by horizontal abstraction allows one to account for the generality of computational descriptions, and to form a single hierarchy in which there are no separate hierarchies in need of integration.

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An idealised account of mechanistic computation

Kersten

2024

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Making too many enemies: Hutto and Myin’s attack on computationalism

Cited by 5 publications

References 44 publications

No computation without implementation? A potential problem for the single hierarchy view of physical computation

No computation without implementation? A potential problem for the single hierarchy view of physical computation

Vertical-horizontal distinction in resolving the abstraction, hierarchy, and generality problems of the mechanistic account of physical computation

An idealised account of mechanistic computation

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