Prediction and the Goal of Understanding
Issue: • Author/s: Sofia Elisabetta Walters
Topics: Cognitive science, Epistemology, Philosophy of mind, Philosophy of science
This paper explores the problem of the goal of understanding, proposing that understanding may be linked to prediction. The approach taken is functional and evolutionary, and it integrates an epistemological perspective with the insights of the predictive processing models of cognition. I first consider the possible goals of understanding, taking as few epistemological assumptions as possible. I take into account the notions of ends in themselves and of explanations, and I distinguish between internally-oriented goals and externally-oriented goals. Then I present how prediction might be connected with the goal of…