CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Molnar, Almos Csaba |
|---|---|
| Title | The Replicator Theory of Knowledge: A Restatement and Extension |
| Summary | This thesis makes a case for a new theoretical framework with which to understand knowledge that is drawn on the synergies between Popperian epistemology, neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory, information theory and computation theory. This view has its origins in the writings of David Deutsch, and it is dubbed by the author as the “replicator theory of knowledge.” According to it, knowledge is neither justified, nor true, and it has little to do with belief, unlike how it is portrayed in the traditional philosophical conception. Instead, knowledge is claimed to be an abstract replicator: a type of information, which, once embodied in a suitable physical system, tends to remain so and casually contribute to its own copying, while most variants of it do not. After exploring the academic context from which this view emerges, the thesis outlines the theory in detail and argues for its explanatory benefits. Then, among the potential sources of contest to the view, the success of Bayesianism in the cognitive sciences is considered and its implications for the theory. Subsequently, a compromise position is developed, which can facilitate a role for Bayesianism within an extended replicator theory of knowledge. |
| Supervisor | Farkas, Katalin |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/molnar_almos-csaba.pdf |
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