Dynamicism (I)

• The dynamical hypothesis:

  • Ontological: cognitive systems are instances of a dynamical causal organization
  • Methodological: cognitive systems are better understood with dynamical system theory

• But:

  • Neither the dynamical hypothesis nor DST offers any criteria to distinguish cognitive from non-cognitive dynamical systems.
    • "This paper simply takes an intuitive grasp of the issue for granted. Crudely put, the question here is not what makes something cognitive, but how cognitive agents work " (van Gelder 1998, p.619).
    • But can we understand how cognitive agents work without knowing what makes them cognitive?