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Deflationary realism: Representation and idealisation in cognitive science
Author(s) -
Coelho Mollo Dimitri
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/mila.12364
Subject(s) - realism , representation (politics) , epistemology , deflation , direct and indirect realism , philosophical realism , allegiance , cognition , cognitive science , philosophy , psychology , economics , political science , law , politics , keynesian economics , monetary policy , neuroscience
Debate on the nature of representation in cognitive systems tends to oscillate between robustly realist views and various anti‐realist options. I defend an alternative view, deflationary realism, which sees cognitive representation as an offshoot of the extended application to cognitive systems of an explanatory model whose primary domain is public representation use. This extended application, justified by a common explanatory target, embodies idealisations, partial mismatches between model and reality. By seeing representation as part of an idealised model, deflationary realism avoids the problems with robust realist views, while keeping allegiance to realism.