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Analog Simulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Russell Trenholme
Russell Trenholme*
Affiliation:
Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science University of Minnesota
*
†Send reprint requests to the author, Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota, 315 Ford Hall, 224 Church Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
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Abstract

The distinction between analog and digital representation is reexamined; it emerges that a more fundamental distinction is that between symbolic and analog simulation. Analog simulation is analyzed in terms of a (near) isomorphism of causal structures between a simulating and a simulated process. It is then argued that a core concept, naturalistic analog simulation, may play a role in a bottom-up theory of adaptive behavior which provides an alternative to representational analyses. The appendix discusses some formal conditions for naturalistic analog simulation.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 115 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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