Philosophical Thought

Determining the Metaphor of “the Mind as a Computer” and Criticizing its Implications in Education

Document Type : Original Research

Author

H. Karon Beirag

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities & Education, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran

https://doi.org/10.58209/jpt.2.2.175
Abstract
In this article, first, the philosophical implications of the metaphor of mind as the computer, were inferred from three perspectives: ontological, epistemological, and anthropological; Then, the elements of the curriculum were deduced from the mentioned philosophical implications, and finally, the implications of the mentioned metaphor in education were criticized. Since we think based on metaphors, according to the above-mentioned metaphor the mind is passive and has a mechanistic view to the student. The student does not have individuality and freewill. Evaluation based on this approach is also based on measuring low levels of educational goals and measuring memory instead of deep learning. The criticisms that have been made show that such an attitude towards human being is not acceptable from a philosophical and especially from an educational point of view. The above-mentioned metaphor can only be useful in explaining the function of the mind or brain on the basis of a weak version of functionalism, and has no further implications.



Keywords

Metaphor
mind
Brain
computer
Education
Functionalism
Subjects
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Philosophical Thought
Volume 2, Issue 2 - Serial Number 6
Spring 2022
Spring 2022
Pages 175-190

  • Receive Date 02 August 2021
  • Accept Date 09 April 2022
  • Publish Date 20 May 2022