Codes, Functions, and Causes: A Critique of Brette's Conceptual Analysis of Coding
This addresses a conceptual debate in neuroscience about the validity of coding explanations, which is incremental as it builds on prior philosophical critiques.
The authors critique Brette's argument that coding is inappropriate for explaining neurocognitive phenomena, arguing instead that such analyses are permissible, coherent, and essential for modeling systems like the brain.
In a recent article, Brette argues that coding as a concept is inappropriate for explanations of neurocognitive phenomena. Here, we argue that Brette's conceptual analysis mischaracterizes the structure of causal claims in coding and other forms of analysis-by-decomposition. We argue that analyses of this form are permissible, conceptually coherent, and offer essential tools for building and developing models of neurocognitive systems like the brain.