Neural wiring optimization and counterfactual explanation

BARBERIS, SERGIO DANIEL

Buenos Aires

Workshop; Workshop on the Philosophy of Cognitive Science; 2017

Universidad de Buenos Aires

Santiago Ramón y Cajal, being the main architect of the neuron doctrine and the law of dynamic polarization, is considered to be the founder of modern neuroscience. At the same time, it is widely agreed among philosophers, historians and neuroscientists that modern neuroscience embodies a mechanistic perspective on the explanation of the nervous system. In this paper, I review the mechanistic interpretation of Cajal?s contribution to neuroscience, and argue that it fails to capture the explanatory import of Cajal?s law of dynamic polarization. I show that the law is better conceived as a thread in a web of principles of neural design that provides design explanations of key anatomical features of the nervous system.