The Idealized Mind: From Model-Based Science to Cognitive Science

by Michael D. Kirchhoff

Overview

A defense of scientific realism based on the role of idealization in the cognitive sciences.

We study nature, including the mind and brain, by building scientific models. In The Idealized Mind, Michael Kirchhoff brings together ideas from the philosophy of cognitive science and the philosophy of science to reconcile scientific realism with model-based science. His defense of scientific realism—the view that one reasonable aim of science is to provide true (or approximately true) descriptions of reality—is based on the role of idealization in the cognitive sciences. Idealization, he claims, is inevitable in cognitive science; at the same time, any understanding of the mind and brain must show how it is possible for scientific models to be reliably used to make truth-conditional assertions about their target phenomena.

A central error in most theorizing about the mind, Kirchhoff claims, is to confuse the properties of scientific models with those of the system being modeled. But scientific models are, almost exclusively and unavoidably, idealizations of the world we seek to understand. They are descriptions of hypothetical systems, things that do not actually exist in nature. Specifically, Kirchhoff uses insights on idealization in science to assess the status and standing of three foundational issues in cognitive science: neural representation, neural computation, and the prospects for explanatory unification. He also explains why it is a mistake to approach neural representation and neural computation through the metaphysical stances of realism, fictionalism, or eliminativism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262552936
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	08/05/2025
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Michael D. Kirchhoff is Associate Professor in the School of Liberal Arts at the University of Wollongong.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part 1: Scientific Realism and the Non-literal View of Idealization
Chapter 1 - Scientific Models and the Map Problem
Chapter 2 - Idealization: The Standard View
Chapter 3 - Idealization: The Non-literal View
Chapter 4: Idealization and Scientific Realism
Part 2: Implications for Cognitive Science
Chapter 5 - Idealization and Neural Representation
Chapter 6 - Idealization and Content in Computational Modeling
Chapter 7 - Idealization and the Mechanistic Theory of Computation
Chapter 8 - Idealization, Multiple Models and Pluralism
Chapter 9 - Idealization and a Grand Unifying Theory of the Brain (case study)
Chapter 10 - Idealization and Fictionalism in Science and Cognitive Science
Concluding remarks: The idealized mind
References

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This book offers a forensic—yet friendly—philosophical treatment of the science of mind. It is forensic in its rigor and friendly in its disclosure of the idealizations we appeal to when making sense of our lived world. I especially liked the denouement of these arguments, as exemplified by the free energy that is—in and of itself—an account of sense making. The ensuing narrative is deeply layered, challenging, yet consistent and deeply compelling.”
—Karl Friston, Professor, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London

"Rich in insights from philosophy of science and concrete examples from natural science, Michael Kirchhoff’s The Idealized Mind argues compellingly for an acceptable scientific realism without requiring that scientific idealizations literally describe reality. Kirchhoff expertly charts this difficult course and successfully tests his account on the premier model of the mind. This book helps us understand what scientific models really teach us about nature, including our own minds."
—Jakob Hohwy, Director of the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies, Monash University; author of The Predictive Mind and The Self-Evidencing Agent