“The Action of the Brain”: Turing, Ashby, Form, and Function in Model...

The tension between the symbolic nature of machine models of the mind and the embodied nature of the mind proper remains one of the unresolved issues in the debates within and between philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence, and cybernetics. The aim of this planned research project in the history and philosophy of science is to comparatively investigate the work of Alan Turing and W. Ross Ashby, and the collaboration between them. The pair were pioneers of modern computer science and cybernetics respectively. Their engagement with modelling human cognition, especially within the context of the Cambridge student group “Ratio Club”, of which both were members, may help to explain, and perhaps even overcome, the infamous symbolic/embodied dichotomy.