ABSTRACT
The central idea of the mechanical view of the mind is that the mind is a part of nature, something which has a regular, law-governed causal structure. It is another thing to say that the causal structure of the mind is also a computational structure – that thinking is computing. However, many believers in the mechanical mind believe in the computational mind too. In fact, the association between thinking and computation is as old as the mechanical world picture itself:
When a man reasoneth, hee does nothing else but conceive a summe totall, from Addition of parcels; or conceive a remainder, from Substraction of one summe from another: which (if it be done by Words) is conceiving of the consequence of the names of all the parts, to the name of the whole; or from the names of the whole and one part, to the name of the other part . . . Out of which we may defi ne (that is to say determine,) what that is, which is meant by this word Reason, when we reckon it amongst the Faculties of the mind. For REASON, in this sense, is nothing but Reckoning (that is, Adding and Substracting) of the Consequences of generall names agreed upon, for the marking and signifying of our thoughts; I say marking them, when we reckon by ourselves; and signifying, when we demonstrate, or approve our reckonings to other men.1
