Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to set forth a sense in which programs can and do explain behavior, and to distinguish from this a number of senses in which they do not. Once we are tolerably clear concerning the sort of explanatory strategy being employed, two rather interesting facts emerge; (1) though it is true that programs are “internally represented,” this fact has no explanatory interest beyond the mere fact that the program is executed; (2) programs which are couched in information processing terms may have an explanatory interest for a given range of behavior which is independent of physiological explanations of the same range of behavior.
Keywords
sortEpistemologySet (abstract data type)Range (aeronautics)Computer sciencePsychologyPhilosophyInformation retrieval
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Publication Info
- Year
- 1977
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 269-287
- Citations
- 129
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Robert Cummins
(1977).
Programs in the Explanation of Behavior.
Philosophy of Science
, 44
(2)
, 269-287.
https://doi.org/10.1086/288742
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1086/288742