ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that a prominent modern conception of a human as a being that thinks by processing internal symbols is fraught with difficulties. There are certain key assumptions in Cognitive Science which Wittgenstein’s understanding of humans is in conflict with. The Symbolic Paradigm in Cognitive Science is inspired by the view that thinking is the manipulation of inner symbolic that is computational, or linguistic representations. Connectionism may be roughly characterized as a computational theory, by contrast with the Symbolic Paradigm, regards the mind not as a calculating device which manipulates data structures but as like a sensory-motor processor which is taught to behave in certain specific ways only through engagement with the actual world. The chapter argues that the Connectionist alternative to the Symbolic Paradigm is not vulnerable to the Wittgensteinian attack and that the immunity is gained by the adoption of radically different foundations in the theories of truth, meaning and mind.
