The Brains Blog

The Idealized Mind (2025) argues that discussion about neural representation and neural computation is based on idealized models. This has serious implications for defending realism about neural representation and neural computation.   Egan is right to think that my critique of computational models applies more widely than to her own account …

Some Physical Systems (Literally) ComputeFrances Egan  Rutgers University  In his ambitious new book, Michael Kirchhoff argues that computational models cannot be literally true of the real-world systems they purport to describe. In chapter 6 he aims his critique at my account of computational models (Egan 2018, 2020), but, as I understand it, the critique …

The Idealized Mind (2025) examines how idealized models are used to interpret the nature and function of the mind and brain, whilst defending a version of scientific realism. Drayson presents several challenges to this project. She says that The Idealized Mind claims that “some scientific theories are neither true nor …

Challenging Kirchhoff on the Semantics of Models and TheoriesZoe DraysonThe bold claim at the heart of Kirchhoff’s (2025) The Idealized Mind is that some scientific theories are neither true nor false. This makes Kirchhoff one of the very few philosophers since the logical empiricists to deny semantic realism: the view …

“Milk production at a dairy farm was low, so the farmer wrote to the local university, asking for help. A multidisciplinary team of professors was assembled, headed by a theoretical physicist, and two weeks of intensive on-site investigation took place. The scholars then returned to the university, where the task …