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Anti-Representationalism: Not A Well-Founded Theory Of Cognition, Michael Kirchhoff

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This article argues for the conclusion that anti-representationalism in the cognitivesciences is not a well-founded theory of cognition. This conclusion is supported by the observationthat the link between the sceptical demonstrations and the anti-representational conclusion is tooweak for the demonstrations to justify anti-representationalism in general. Rather than denying theneed for internal representation, this article aim to establish that representational explanation -reconstructed within a dynamical agent-environment characterization - serves a necessary epistemicand ontological aim: It enables us to demarcate activities that presuppose intentionality andbehavioral autonomy from activities that are merely reactive and situation-determined.