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Programs in the Explanation of Behavior

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Robert Cummins
Robert Cummins*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to set forth a sense in which programs can and do explain behavior, and to distinguish from this a number of senses in which they do not. Once we are tolerably clear concerning the sort of explanatory strategy being employed, two rather interesting facts emerge; (1) though it is true that programs are “internally represented,” this fact has no explanatory interest beyond the mere fact that the program is executed; (2) programs which are couched in information processing terms may have an explanatory interest for a given range of behavior which is independent of physiological explanations of the same range of behavior.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , June 1977 , pp. 269 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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References

REFERENCES

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