Most experts assume that perception estimates true properties of an objective world. They justify this assumption with an argument from evolution: Natural selection rewards true perceptions. I propose instead that if true perceptions crop u…the Rear-Mirror: Romantic Aesthetics, Culture, and Science Seen from Today. Festschrift for Frederick Burwick on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, ed. W. Pape (WVT, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier: Trier) (Studien zur Englischen Roma…
Steven Pinker
scientist · 2 mentions across 1 reading
In this course
Pinker's evolutionary psychology and computational theory of mind provide a baseline assumption about perception and cognition that the course readings interrogate and ultimately reject. Specifically, the course material uses Pinker's evolutionary argument that natural selection favors accurate perception as a foil for Hoffman's counterargument that evolution actually selects *against* true representations in favor of fitness-enhancing ones. By invoking Pinker's framework, the readings establish a philosophical stakes in how we understand the relationship between mind, reality, and the adaptive pressures that shape artificial systems.
Background
Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University.
Wikipedia →Mentioned in 1 reading
Appears alongside
People mentioned in the same passages — sorted by co-occurrence weight.
Louis Narens 2Alva Noë 1D. Heyer 1Dale Purves 1Donald D. Hoffman 1Evan Thompson 1Frederick Burwick 1J.K. Regan 1K.A. Jameson 1Martin A. Nowak 1Michele Mosca 1Natalia L. Komarova 1P. Kaye 1R. B. Lotto 1Rainer Mausfeld 1Raymond Laflamme 1Stephen E. Palmer 1Steve Lehar 1Vilayanur S. Ramachandran 1W. Pape 1Brian Marion 1Brian Skyrms 1Carol Skrenes 1Chetan Prakash 1Duncan Luce 1Geoff Iverson 1John Serences 1Jon Merzel 1Joyce Wu 1Justin Mark 1