Two open questions in the reformist agenda of the philosophy of cognitive science

Abstract: In this paper we carve out a reformist agenda within the debate on the foundations of cognitive science, incorporating some important ideas from the 4E cognition literature into the computational-representational framework. We are deeply sympathetic to this reformist program since we think that, despite strong criticism of the concept of computation and the related notion of representation, computational models should still be at the core of the study of mind. At the same time, we recognize the need for a liberalization of the computational and representational framework that can address deep dissatisfaction with the anti-biologism and radical internalism of classical cognitive science. However, reform is a difficult task, so in this article we focus on two open questions within the reformist agenda. The first concerns the possibility of combining mechanistic-computational and dynamical explanations. The second concerns related changes in the notion of representation and its use (with special attention to Andy Clark’s radical predictive processing).Keywords: Continuum of Representational Genera; Enactivism; Predictive Processing; Radical Embodied Cognition Thesis; RepresentationalismDue problemi aperti nell’agenda riformista della filosofia della scienza cognitivaRiassunto: In questo lavoro identifichiamo un’agenda riformista nel dibattito sui fondamenti della scienza cognitiva che incorpora alcune idee centrali provenienti dalla letteratura sulla cognizione 4E all’interno di una cornice computazionalista e rappresentazionalista. Tale agenda considera il quadro computazionalista e rappresentazionalista ancora imprescindibile ai fini dello studio integrato della mente e del cervello, ma ne persegue una liberalizzazione nell’intento di renderlo idoneo ad accogliere alcuni importanti spunti emersi dalla letteratura sulla cognizione delle 4E. Tuttavia, riformare è un compito difficile. In questo articolo ci concentriamo su due problemi aperti nell’agenda riformista. Il primo riguarda la possibilità di mettere assieme le spiegazioni meccaniciste e computazionaliste con quelle dinamiche. Il secondo riguarda i cambiamenti relativi alla nozione di rappresentazione e al suo impiego (con particolare attenzione all’elaborazione predittiva radicale di Andy Clark).Parole chiave: Continuum dei generi rappresentazionali; Elaborazione predittiva; Enattivismo; Tesi della cognizione incarnata radicale; Rappresentazionalism

Entanglement Exchange and Bohmian Mechanics

This paper analyses the phenomenon of entanglement exchange in Bohm's pilot wave interpretation of quantum mechanics. The interesting feature of the phenomenon is that systems become entangled without causal interaction; hence it is a useful situation for investigating the unique nature of interaction in Bohmian mechanics. The first two sections introduce, respectively, entanglement exchange in the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the basic principles of Bohmian mechanics. The next section shows that the Bohmian interpretation makes the same experimental predictions about entanglement exchange as the standard one. The final section draws some conclusions about interactions and entanglement in Bohmian mechanics

Deriving General Relativity From String Theory

This paper gives an introduction to the conformal symmetry of classical string theory, and explains its role in the derivation of the Einstein field equations - the 'prediction' of gravity in quantum string theory. Quantization breaks the symmetry - the 'conformal anomaly' of the theory - and reimposing it leads (to first order) to the EFEs, and to additional spacetime dimensions: thus conformal symmetry is crucial to understanding the 'emergence' of classical spacetime. Because of the importance of conformal symmetry in these derivations, it is natural to wonder whether it is an independent postulate of quantum string theory, or whether it is compulsory. We review how conformal symmetry arises even if one does not cure the anomaly by the standard means: though explanatorily significant, it is not an independent postulate

The Emergence of Spacetime in String Theory

The nature of space and time is one of the most fascinating and fundamental areas of the philosophy of physics. This study aims to provide a complete account of current debates in the application of spacetime to string theory. String theory has been an important discipline within physics for many years but is only now being applied to the problems faced by philosophers of science. This emerging area of physics is discussed in relation to a number of theories including general relativity, T-duality and moduli space, and set in the context of current and future research

Emergent Spacetime in String Theory

The general theory of relativity, the most far-reaching of Einstein’s scientific achievements, describes spacetime as the medium of gravity. This fact characterizes spacetime as one of the fundamental dynamical objects of the theory, necessary element in its description of reality. It is widely known that a quantum theory of gravity radically changes this idea of spacetime as being part of a fundamental description of our physical world. Despite far from being a complete quantum theory of gravity, string theory is one of the most promising approach to it. The theory has the good property of predicting gravity and it seems to deliver a view in which ordinary spacetime, no longer a fundamental tile of reality, emerges from its dynamical equations. My dissertation is an analysis of the emergent nature of spacetime in string theory. The notion of emergence is involved in many philosophical disputes and it branches off in a multitude of different subjects. In this work I shall not examine all its declinations. My focus will be instead only on some particular uses of this notion which are central to the current debate on the fate of spacetime in string theory: spacetime emergence in the contest of theoretical dualities, in particular T-duality, and spacetime emergence in the context of time-space non-commutativity. The analysis unravels through a presentation of the main scientific literature on the topic, along with a presentation of my interpretational proposals