Content, Computation and Externalism

Abstract

It is hardly disputed that the working hypothesis of cognitive science is that cognition is a form of computation; that theories in cognitive science construe human cognitive processes as a species of information processing. There has been less agreement, however, on the exact role of information or content in computational theories. Tyler Burge claims that mental content plays an individuative role in computational theories. On this view, computational theories of cognition are intentional in that they make essential reference to the content of mental representations. In particular, Burge argues that a change in content may alter the computational identity of a cognitive system. But this view is not widely accepted. Most philosophers, though divided among themselves as to the exact role of content in theories in cognitive science, deny that content plays an individuative role in computational theories. On this majority view, computational theories make essential reference only to the syntactic properties of mental representations, and not to their content.