| Abstract |
Suggests that J. A. Fodor's (1975, 1980, 1981) extreme functionalism is unwarranted insofar as it leads to a categorical exclusion of the structural processes involved in cognitive development. An explicit consideration of these processes indicates the possibility of more powerful structures, emerging through self-organization in a way that is distinct from the combinatorial mechanisms invoked by Fodor. This point is illustrated by means of a simple example involving an inductive neural network with emergent structural properties.
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