Philosophy of Cognitive Science in the Age of Deep Learning
This perspective paper highlights opportunities for philosophers to engage with deep learning, but it is incremental as it surveys existing ideas without new results.
The paper argues that deep learning's advances are relevant to philosophy of cognitive science, addressing theoretical debates and methodological challenges, and calls for interdisciplinary collaboration.
Deep learning has enabled major advances across most areas of artificial intelligence research. This remarkable progress extends beyond mere engineering achievements and holds significant relevance for the philosophy of cognitive science. Deep neural networks have made significant strides in overcoming the limitations of older connectionist models that once occupied the centre stage of philosophical debates about cognition. This development is directly relevant to long-standing theoretical debates in the philosophy of cognitive science. Furthermore, ongoing methodological challenges related to the comparative evaluation of deep neural networks stand to benefit greatly from interdisciplinary collaboration with philosophy and cognitive science. The time is ripe for philosophers to explore foundational issues related to deep learning and cognition; this perspective paper surveys key areas where their contributions can be especially fruitful.