Feedback Control without Information Processing

While working on a paper on neural computation, the following question came up:  can you exert feedback control without processing information? The kind of case I have in mind is that of relatively simple feedback control devices that use one or two physical variable(s) to affect another.  For instance, Watt …

The Coming of "The Age of Significance"?

Reading an unpublished paper by Nir Fresco led me to discover a website where Brian Cantwell Smith announces the imminent publication of his seven-volume “The Age of Significance,” to be published simultaneously online (one chapter per month over several years) and in print by MIT Press. BCS has been announcing …

Where Does "Biological Psychology" Come From?

I recently realized that the label “biological psychology” is quite popular among some psychologists, including at my university.  For example, there are core courses, journals, and textbooks with that name.  “Biological psychology” is used as roughly synonymous with “behavioral neuroscience,” which is another label popular in the same circles and explicitly refers …

On Information Processing, Computation, and Cognition

As I mentioned some time ago , Andrea Scarantino and I wrote a paper on the relationships between information processing, computation, and cognition.  As far as I know, it is the broadest and most systematic discussion of this topic to date.  It also corrects a number of (what we consider) …

Synthese Submission Option on Neuroscience and Its Philosophy

Following up on a previous post on this topic:  The journal Synthese has added a submission option on “neuroscience and its philosophy” to its online submission system.  If you select that option, the system should to put me (qua editor of the yearly issue on neuroscience and its philosophy) in …

Connectionism Need Not Be (Strongly) Associationistic

In a previous post, I briefly discussed the relationship between connectionism and associationism.  Thanks in part to the helpful feedback I received, I have now revised the relevant section of the paper I am working on.  I’d be interested in any additional comments or references that anyone might have.  The text of the paper …

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