Darwinian algorithms and indexical representation
Philosophy of Science 63 (1):27-48 (1996)
| Abstract | In this paper, I argue that accurate indexical representations have been crucial for the survival and reproduction of homo sapiens sapiens. Specifically, I want to suggest that reliable processes have been selected for because of their indirect, but close, connection to true belief during the Pleistocene hunter-gatherer period of our ancestral history. True beliefs are not heritable, reliable processes are heritable. Those reliable processes connected with reasoning take the form of Darwinian Algorithms: a plethora of specialized, domain-specific inference rules designed to solve specific, recurrent, adaptive problems in social exchange contexts. Humans do not reason logically, but adaptively | |||||||||
| Keywords | Algorithm Biology Indexicality Logic Science Species | |||||||||
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