Criticisms and Consequences of the Connectionist Approach

Abstract

In this chapter, I want to examine two famous discussions of philosophical consequences of the connectionist approach. Naturally, these two discussions are but a small selection of the responses and criticisms that in fact have been made to the development of connectionism. But I have selected these two discussions in particular because they touch on themes that have already been — and will continue to be — important to the particular account being presented in this book. They concern connectionism’s implications for the mind-body problem, and the relationship between connectionism and GOFAI (with the latter also setting the stage for a subsequent discussion of connectionism’s relationship to the dynamical systems approach to cognitive science and AI).