title: Constructional Tools as the Origin of Cognitive Capacities creator: Josephson, Brian D. subject: Theoretical Biology subject: Cognitive Psychology subject: Complexity Theory subject: Language subject: Machine Learning subject: Neural Nets subject: Developmental Psychology subject: Evolutionary Psychology subject: Learnability subject: Semantics subject: Syntax subject: Neural Modelling subject: Neuropsychology subject: Philosophy of Language subject: Philosophy of Mind description: It is argued that cognitive capacities can be understood as the outcome of the collective action of a set of agents created by tools that explore possible behaviours and train the agents to behave in such appropriate ways as may be discovered. The coherence of the whole system is assured by a combination of vetting the performance of new agents and dealing appropriately with any faults that the whole system may develop. This picture is shown to account for a range of cognitive capacities, including language. date: 2000 type: Conference Paper type: NonPeerReviewed format: text/html identifier: http://cogprints.org/150/1/echo4.html format: application/pdf identifier: http://cogprints.org/150/5/echo4.pdf identifier: Josephson, Brian D. (2000) Constructional Tools as the Origin of Cognitive Capacities. [Conference Paper] (Unpublished) relation: http://cogprints.org/150/