Representation, Computation, Mechanism: What is the Best Explanation of Cognition?

This online workshop will bring together philosophers and scientists to discuss the role and uses of ‘mechanism‘, ‘representation‘, ‘computation’ and ‘information-processing’ in cognitive science broadly construed. Should all explanations and models in cognitive science identify possible or actual mechanisms? Can a genuine mechanistic explanation be representational? Do representations earn their explanatory keep in theories and models in cognitive science? What is the explanatory role of ‘information’ and ‘computation’ in such theories and models in cognitive science? How should we conceive of computation in the brain? Is it theoretically useful to aim at a single, all-encompassing theory of information (one size fits all)? Addressing these questions in a single workshop is especially important in view of the central roles of these concepts in different areas of cognitive science.