Why we view the brain as a computer

Abstract: The view that the brain is a sort of computer has functioned as a theoretical guideline both in cognitive science and, more recently, in neuroscience. But since we can view every physical system as a computer, it has been less than clear what this view amounts to. By considering in some detail a seminal study in computational neuroscience, I first suggest that neuroscientists invoke the computational outlook to explain regularities that are formulated in terms of the information content of electrical signals. I then indicate why computational theories have explanatory force with respect to these regularities: in a nutshell, they underscore correspondence relations between formal/mathematical properties of the electrical signals and formal/mathematical properties of the represented objects. I finally link my proposal to the philosophical thesis that content plays an essential role in computational taxonomy. A central working hypothesis in cognitive and brain sciences is that the brain is a sort of a computer. But what, exactly, does it mean to say that an organ or a system such as the brain is a computer? And why do scientists take a computational approach to brain and cognitive function? In addressing these questions, I will put forward a revisionar