Morris Goldsmith (1998) Connectionist Modeling and Theorizing:
. Psycoloquy: 9(18) Connectionist Explanation (15)
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Psycoloquy 9(18): Connectionist Modeling and Theorizing:
CONNECTIONIST MODELING AND THEORIZING:
WHO DOES THE EXPLAINING AND HOW?
Commentary on Green on Connectionist-Explanation
Morris Goldsmith
Department of Psychology
University of Haifa
Haifa, 31905, Israel
mgold@psy.haifa.ac.il
Abstract
Green's (1998) criticism that connectionist models are
devoid of theoretical substance rests on a simplistic view of the
nature of connectionist models and a failure to acknowledge the
division of labor between the model and the modeller in the
enterprise of connectionist modelling. The "theoretical terms" of
connectionist theory are not to be found in processing units or in
connections but in more abstract characterizations of the
functional properties of networks. Moreover, these properties are
-- and at present should be -- only loosely tied to the known (and
largely unknown) properties of neural networks in the brain.
Keywords
artificial intelligence, cognition, computer modelling,
connectionism, epistemology, explanation, methodology, neural nets,
philosophy of science, theory.
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