Biology and Philosophy 35 (3):1-45 (2020)
Authors | |
Abstract |
What is the function of cognition? On one influential account, cognition evolved to co-ordinate behaviour with environmental change or complexity. Liberal interpretations of this view ascribe cognition to an extraordinarily broad set of biological systems—even bacteria, which modulate their activity in response to salient external cues, would seem to qualify as cognitive agents. However, equating cognition with adaptive flexibility per se glosses over important distinctions in the way biological organisms deal with environmental complexity. Drawing on contemporary advances in theoretical biology and computational neuroscience, we cash these distinctions out in terms of different kinds of generative models, and the representational and uncertainty-resolving capacities they afford. This analysis leads us to propose a formal criterion for delineating cognition from other, more pervasive forms of adaptive plasticity. On this view, biological cognition is rooted in a particular kind of functional organisation; namely, that which enables the agent to detach from the present and engage in counterfactual inference.
|
Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
ISBN(s) | |
DOI | 10.1007/s10539-020-09746-2 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind.Evan Thompson - 2007 - Harvard University Press.
Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind.Andy Clark - 2016 - Oxford University Press USA.
View all 90 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Free energy: a user’s guide.Stephen Francis Mann, Ross Pain & Michael D. Kirchhoff - 2022 - Biology and Philosophy 37 (4):1-35.
From Allostatic Agents to Counterfactual Cognisers: Active Inference, Biological Regulation, and the Origins of Cognition.Andrew W. Corcoran, Giovanni Pezzulo & Jakob Hohwy - 2020 - Biology and Philosophy 35 (3):1-45.
A Continuum of Intentionality: Linking the Biogenic and Anthropogenic Approaches to Cognition.Matthew Sims - 2021 - Biology and Philosophy 36 (6):1-31.
Is Free-Energy Minimisation the Mark of the Cognitive?Matt Sims & Julian Kiverstein - 2021 - Biology and Philosophy 36 (2):1-27.
Non-equilibrium thermodynamics and the free energy principle in biology.Matteo Colombo & Patricia Palacios - 2021 - Biology and Philosophy 36 (5):1-26.
View all 13 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Robotics, Biological Grounding and the Fregean Tradition.Marti Hooijmans & Fred Keijzer - 2007 - Pragmatics and Cognition 15 (3):515-546.
The Role of Regulation in the Origin and Synthetic Modelling of Minimal Cognition.Leonardo Bich & Alvaro Moreno - 2016 - Biosystems 148:12-21.
Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature.Peter Godfrey-Smith (ed.) - 1996 - Cambridge University Press.
Is Cognition a Matter of Representations?: Emulation, Teleology, and Time-Keeping in Biological Systems.Ángel García Rodríguez & Francisco Calvo Garzón - 2010 - Adaptive Behavior 18 (5):400-415.
Leave Inference Alone : Direct Inferential Social Cognition.Patrizio Lo Presti - forthcoming - Theory and Psychology.
Info-Computational Constructivism and Cognition.G. Dodig-Crnkovic - 2014 - Constructivist Foundations 9 (2):223-231.
Biology, Culture and Coevolution: Religion and Language as Case Studies.Francesco Ferretti & Ines Adornetti - 2014 - Journal of Cognition and Culture 14 (3-4):305-330.
Individuality, Subjectivity, and Minimal Cognition.Peter Godfrey-Smith - 2016 - Biology and Philosophy 31 (6):775-796.
Toward Mechanistic Models of Action-Oriented and Detached Cognition.Giovanni Pezzulo - 2016 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 39.
Cognition and Biological Evolution an Idealist Approach Resolves a Fundamental Paradox.Dr Axel Randrup - 2004
Bridging the Gap: Dynamics as a Unified View of Cognition.Derek Harter, Arthur C. Graesser & Stan Franklin - 2001 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24 (1):45-46.
Four Notions of Biological Function.Arno G. Wouters - 2002 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 34 (4):633-668.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2020-04-29
Total views
27 ( #425,485 of 2,518,494 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
4 ( #167,146 of 2,518,494 )
2020-04-29
Total views
27 ( #425,485 of 2,518,494 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
4 ( #167,146 of 2,518,494 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads