Philosophy, engineering, biology, and history: a vindication of Turing's views about the distinction between the cognitive and physical sciences.

EVOLUTIONARY theories; TURING test; COGNITIVE science; PHYSICAL sciences

Alan Turing draws a firm line between the mental and the physical, between the cognitive and physical sciences. For Turing, following a tradition that went back to D'Arcy Thompson, if not Geoffroy and Lucretius, throws out talk of function, intentionality, and final causes from biology as a physical science. He likens "mother nature" to the earnest A. I. scientist, who may send to school disparate versions of the "child machine," eventually hoping for a test-passer but knowing that the vagaries of his experimental course are history and accident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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