Codes, functions, and causes: A critique of Brette's conceptual analysis of coding.
David L BarackAndrew JaeglePublished in: The Behavioral and brain sciences (2019)
Brette argues that coding as a concept is inappropriate for explanations of neurocognitive phenomena. Here, we argue that Brette's conceptual analysis mischaracterizes the structure of causal claims in coding and other forms of analysis-by-decomposition. We argue that analyses of this form are permissible and conceptually coherent and offer essential tools for building and developing models of neurocognitive systems like the brain.