Alan Turing’s models of cognition

The aim of this paper is to investigate Alan Turing’smodels of cognition and outlining the role of materiality in his understandingof cognition. I regard it as a contribution to the history of science and takea systematic, philosophical standpoint concerning the question of how materialobjects are involved in understanding cognitive processes. After a shortintroduction, the first part provides an overview of the orthodox understandingof Turing as proponent of formal-logical understanding of the mind, the secondpart investigates the role of materiality within the paradigm of symbol basedcognition and the third part contrasts the given findings with excerpts ofTuring’s writings on material aspects of machinery.