A vindication of the explanatory power of cognitive models

BARBERIS, SERGIO

Salvador de Bahía

Congreso; XVII Congreso Interamericano de Filosofía; 2013

In this paper, I argue, first, that functional analysis and mechanistic explanations are sub-kinds of explanation by scientific (idealized) models. From that point of view, we must take into account the tradeoff between the representational/explanatory goals of generality and precision that govern the practice of model-building. In some modeling scenarios, it is rational to maximize explanatory generality at the expense of mechanistic precision.I suggest that mechanists should accept that functional analysis can offer acceptable explanations of cognitive phenomena.