Metaphor and Cognitive Sciences

Abstract

In the first part of the article are represented two extreme positions about the role of the computer in explaining cognition. The classicist takes computation literally and denies that it is a metaphor. The opponent takes computer merely as a new metaphor in the history of attempts to explain cognition that will be superseded by a new technological discovery. It is argued that these two positions don’t exhaust all the possibilities. The computer metaphor is an example of theory-constitutive metaphors that display inductive open-endedness and stimulate a further research. It shows that information processes are not only symbol manipulations but also the spreading of activations in connectionist networks. It is suggested that connectionist theory is a refinement of the cognitive theory based on the computer metaphor and is in a better position to explain cognitive processes.