How Representation Works Is More Important Than What Representations Are.

Abstract

A theory of representation is incomplete if it states "representations are X" where X can be symbols, cell assemblies, functional states, or the flock of birds from Theaetetus, without explaining the nature of the link between the universe of X's and the world. Amit's thesis, equating representations with reverberations in Hebbian cell assemblies, will only be considered a solution to the problem of representation when it is complemented by a theory of how a reverberation in the brain can be a representation of anything.