Why Wittgenstein Ought to Have Been a Computationalist (And What a Computationalist Can Gain from Wittgenstein)
Why Wittgenstein Ought to Have Been a Computationalist (And What a Computationalist Can Gain from Wittgenstein)

Summary/Abstract: Wittgenstein’s views invite a modest, functionalist account of mental states and regularities, or more specifically a causal/computational, re-presentational theory of the mind (CRTT). It is only by understanding Wittgenstein’s remarks in the context of a theory like CRTT that his insights have any real force; and it is only by recognizing those insights that CRTT can begin to account for sensations and our thoughts about them. For instance, Wittgenstein’s (in)famous remark that “an inner process stands in need of outward criteria” (PI:§580), so implausible read behaviorally, is entirely plausible if the “outward” is allowed to include computational facts about our brains. But what is especially penetrating about Wittgenstein’s discussion is his unique diagnosis of our puzzlement in this area, in particular, his suggestion that it is due to our captivation by “pictures” whose application to reality is left crucially under-specified. it is only by understanding. What sustains the naive picture is not a captivation by language, but, at least in part, our largely involuntary reactions to things that look and act like our conspecifics. We project a property into them correlative to that reaction in ourselves, and are, indeed, unwilling to project it into things that do not induce that reaction.

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