Overcoming Computationalism in Cognitive Science

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of computationalism in Cognitive Science in order to highligth its shortcomings. The main thesis is that, rather than eliminating computationalism from Cognitive Science, we would better reconsider the distinction between computable and uncomputable. Whereas such a distinction is useful to stress the intrinsic limitations of a mechanistic view of cognitive processing, it is useless when dealing with the main problem of post-computational Cognitive Science, namely the one of understanding the emergence of cognitive abilities from biological stuff.