Rational analysis, intractability, and the prospects of 'as if'-explanations.

The plausibility of so-called 'rational explanations' in cognitive science is often contested on the grounds of computational intractability. Some have argued that intractability is a pseudoproblem, however, because cognizers do not actually perform the rational calculations posited by rational mode...

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Publicado en:Synthese Vol. 195; no. 2; pp. 491 - 511
Autores principales: van Rooij, Iris, Wright, Cory D., Kwisthout, Johan, Wareham, Todd
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Feb2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Rational analysis, intractability, and the prospects of 'as if'-explanations.
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          van Rooij, Iris
          Wright, Cory D.
          Kwisthout, Johan
          Wareham, Todd
        affil:
          Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
          Department of Philosophy, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, USA
          Department of Computer Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada
      su:
        Approximation theory
        Semantics
        Comparative linguistics
        Computational complexity
        Cognitive science
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        subj:
          Approximation theory
          Semantics
          Comparative linguistics
          Computational complexity
          Cognitive science
      keyword:
        Approximation
        Computational-level theory
        Intractability
        NP-hard
        Psychological explanation
        Rational analysis
      ab: The plausibility of so-called 'rational explanations' in cognitive science is often contested on the grounds of computational intractability. Some have argued that intractability is a pseudoproblem, however, because cognizers do not actually perform the rational calculations posited by rational models; rather, they only behave as if they do. Whether or not the problem of intractability is dissolved by this gambit critically depends, inter alia, on the semantics of the 'as if' connective. First, this paper examines the five most sensible explications in the literature, and concludes that none of them actually circumvents the problem. Hence, rational 'as if' explanations must obey the minimal computational constraint of tractability. Second, this paper describes how rational explanations could satisfy the tractability constraint. Our approach suggests a computationally unproblematic interpretation of 'as if' that is compatible with the original conception of rational analysis.
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    language: English
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