Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 10, 2026

Dynamicism

Dynamicism, also termed dynamic cognition, is an approach in cognitive science popularized by the work of philosopher Tim van Gelder. It argues that differential equations and dynamical systems are more suited to modeling cognition rather than the commonly used ideas of symbolicism, connectionism, or traditional computer models. It is closely related to dynamical neuroscience.

Last revised
Jun 10, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
138 w
Citations
4
Source
Wikipedia ↗

Dynamicism, also termed dynamic cognition, is an approach in cognitive science popularized by the work of philosopher Tim van Gelder.12 It argues that differential equations and dynamical systems are more suited to modeling cognition rather than the commonly used ideas of symbolicism, connectionism, or traditional computer models.34 It is closely related to dynamical neuroscience.

References

References

  1. Tim, van Gelder (1995), "What might cognition be, if not computation?", The Journal of Philosophy, 91 (7): 345–381, doi:10.2307/2941061, JSTOR 2941061
  2. Tim, van Gelder (October 1998), "The dynamical hypothesis in cognitive science", Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 21 (5): 615–628, doi:10.1017/S0140525X98001733, PMID 10097022
  3. Eliasmith, Chris (1996-12-01). "The third contender: A critical examination of the Dynamicist theory of cognition". Philosophical Psychology. 9 (4): 441–463. doi:10.1080/09515089608573194. ISSN 0951-5089.
  4. Zednik, Carlos (2009), "The Varieties of Dynamicism", Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 31