University of Wollongong
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Breaking explanatory boundaries: flexible borders and plastic minds

journal contribution
posted on 2024-11-16, 02:21 authored by Michael KirchhoffMichael Kirchhoff, Russell Meyer
In this paper, we offer reasons to justify the explanatory credentials of dynamical modeling in the context of the metaplasticity thesis, located within a larger grouping of views known as 4E Cognition. Our focus is on showing that dynamicism is consistent with interventionism, and therefore with a difference-making account at the scale of system topologies that makes sui generis explanatory differences to the overall behavior of a cognitive system. In so doing, we provide a general overview of the interventionist approach. We then argue that recent mechanistic attempts at reducing dynamical modeling to a merely descriptive enterprise fail given that the explanatory standard in dynamical modeling can be shown to rest on interventionism. We conclude that dynamical modeling captures features of nested and developmentally plastic cognitive systems that cannot be explained by appeal to underlying mechanisms alone.

Funding

Minds in skilled performance: Explanatory framework and comparative study

Australian Research Council

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History

Citation

Kirchhoff, M. & Meyer, R. (2019). Breaking explanatory boundaries: flexible borders and plastic minds. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 18 (1), 185-204.

Journal title

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

Volume

18

Issue

1

Pagination

185-204

Language

English

RIS ID

116927

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