Computational Thought Experiments for a More Rigorous Philosophy and Science of the Mind

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Hauptverfasser: Oved, Iris, Krishnaswamy, Nikhil, Pustejovsky, James, Hartshorne, Joshua
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Oved, Iris
Krishnaswamy, Nikhil
Pustejovsky, James
Hartshorne, Joshua
author_facet Oved, Iris
Krishnaswamy, Nikhil
Pustejovsky, James
Hartshorne, Joshua
contents We offer philosophical motivations for a method we call Virtual World Cognitive Science (VW CogSci), in which researchers use virtual embodied agents that are embedded in virtual worlds to explore questions in the field of Cognitive Science. We focus on questions about mental and linguistic representation and the ways that such computational modeling can add rigor to philosophical thought experiments, as well as the terminology used in the scientific study of such representations. We find that this method forces researchers to take a god's-eye view when describing dynamical relationships between entities in minds and entities in an environment in a way that eliminates the need for problematic talk of belief and concept types, such as the belief that cats are silly, and the concept CAT, while preserving belief and concept tokens in individual cognizers' minds. We conclude with some further key advantages of VW CogSci for the scientific study of mental and linguistic representation and for Cognitive Science more broadly.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_08304
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Computational Thought Experiments for a More Rigorous Philosophy and Science of the Mind
Oved, Iris
Krishnaswamy, Nikhil
Pustejovsky, James
Hartshorne, Joshua
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Neurons and Cognition
We offer philosophical motivations for a method we call Virtual World Cognitive Science (VW CogSci), in which researchers use virtual embodied agents that are embedded in virtual worlds to explore questions in the field of Cognitive Science. We focus on questions about mental and linguistic representation and the ways that such computational modeling can add rigor to philosophical thought experiments, as well as the terminology used in the scientific study of such representations. We find that this method forces researchers to take a god's-eye view when describing dynamical relationships between entities in minds and entities in an environment in a way that eliminates the need for problematic talk of belief and concept types, such as the belief that cats are silly, and the concept CAT, while preserving belief and concept tokens in individual cognizers' minds. We conclude with some further key advantages of VW CogSci for the scientific study of mental and linguistic representation and for Cognitive Science more broadly.
title Computational Thought Experiments for a More Rigorous Philosophy and Science of the Mind
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Neurons and Cognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.08304