Research on the Philosophical Significance of Connectionism

通过对联结主义与经典计算主义的比较，我们试图阐明联结主义的哲学意义。通过仔细研究“分布式表征”这一概念在连接主义者对认知活动的解释中的使用，服部争辩说，真正的“分布式表征”根本不是表征。米诺指出，联结主义和经典计算主义共享代表主义，而这两种观点在经典计算主义是否正确的问题上存在分歧。金子认为，动力系统方法不适合解释认知活动。柴田表明，在未来，民间心理学可能会被认知科学和神经生理学所取代。鹿原为命题态度的现实进行了辩护。他认为，没有与命题态度相对应的大脑状态的说法和真正的命题态度不存在的说法之间存在逻辑上的差距。鸟山讨论了消失论(或消除唯物主义)。根据他的说法，我们必须更仔细地研究“减少”的概念，以便评估失踪理论家的说法。在谈到过去的科学革命和类似的例子时，横山声称，我们必须从更广泛的角度看待我们的世界的连接主义。大泽一郎认为，自然语言不仅仅是一种具有句法结构的客体。他认为图片意象具有一种句法结构和代表功能，并提出了图片意象所遵循的新逻辑。

Comparing connectionism with classical computationalism, we attempted to make clear of the philosophical significance of connectionism. By scrutinizing the use of the notion of "distributed representation" in connectionists' explanations of cognitive activities, Hattori argued that really "distributed representations" were not representations at all. Mino showed that connectionism and classical computationalism shared representationalism, while the two positions differed as to whether classical computationalism was right or not. Kaneko argued that dynamical systems approach was not appropriate in explaining cognitive activities. Shibata showed, with some reservations, that in the future folk psychology could be replaced by cognitive science and neurophysioiogy. Kashiwabata defended the reality of propositional attitudes. He argued that there was a logical gap between the claim that there was no brain state corresponding to a propositional attitude and the claim that really propositional attitudes did not exist. Todayama discussed the disappearance theory (or eliminative materialism). According to him, we have to study the notion of "reduction" more carefully in order to evaluate disappearance theorists' claim. Referring to the examples found in past scientific revolutions and the like, Yokoyama claimed that we had to see connectionism in a more broader perspective of our world. Ohsawa claimed that natural language was not only one kind of object which had syntactic structure. He asserted that picture images had a kind of syntactic structure and representative functions, and proposed a new logic which these images followed.