Die Computertheorie des Geistes

pp. 89-101

in: UWE Oestermeier, Bildliches und logisches Denken, Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitätsverlag, 1998

Abstract

„... many believe that the discrete, languagelike nature of the postulated carriers of thought arises by false analogy with the discrete symbol structures of computers, and thus object to them on this ground alone. They point out that to adopt metaphors from current technology is to ensure the rapid obsolescence of ones ideas. The wax-tablet metaphor of the ancients gave way to the lever-and-gear metaphor of the eighteenth century, which gave way to the telephone-switchboard metaphor of the early twentieth century. Now we have the computer-software metaphor with its discrete languagelike, symbolic expressions.