Cognition is not computation

the argument from irreversibility

Selmer Bringsjord

Michael J. Zenzen

pp. 285-320

in: Synthese 113 (2), 1997.

Abstrakt

The dominant scientific and philosophical view of the mind – according to which, put starkly, cognition is computation – is refuted herein, via specification and defense of the following new argument: Computation is reversible; cognition isn't; ergo, cognition isn't computation. After presenting a sustained dialectic arising from this defense, we conclude with a brief preview of the view we would put in place of the cognition-is-computation doctrine.