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Evolutionary and Neuroscience Approaches to the Study of Cognition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Warren Schmaus
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Abstract

There is a need to bring the work of philosophers such as Millikan who take an evolutionary approach to the study of the mind more in harmony with work in the cognitive neurosciences. Studies of the brain suggest that knowledge in the cortex may be organized by sensory modality-specific properties rather than by hierarchies of substance concepts, regardless of how adaptive Millikan argues the latter would be. Ryder's work on SINBAD networks, which purports to support Millikan's conclusions, does not decide this issue. The ability to make cross-modal identifications of individuals and kinds may be only a recent evolutionary adaptation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 72 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2005 , pp. 675 - 686
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

In preparing the final draft of this paper, I have been in e-mail correspondence with Ruth Millikan and Dan Ryder. I would like to thank them for their assistance. Of course, all interpretations, opinions, and errors are solely my own responsibility.

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