Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.6, 2020

 

The Mutual Philosophical Interpretation of Artificial Intelligence and Epistemology: From Cognitive Classification to Evolutionary Logic

(Abstract)

 

Xiao Feng

 

The unique internal relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and epistemology enables the two to have an interactive philosophical interpretation. On the one hand, the epistemological interpretation of AI includes revealing its epistemological foundation, especially the epistemological views of different AI programs or paradigms (symbolism, connectionism and behaviorism), together with different relationships featuring shared principles and structures as well as parallels and sympathies built up through the conduct of intelligent (cognitive) simulation. On the other, it provides epistemological interpretations from the perspective of AI, including cognitive classification (inferential cognition, learning cognition, behavioral cognition and instinctive cognition) based on an AI paradigm, thereby revealing the multiple relationships among these classifications. On this basis, a dynamic interactive interpretation between AI and epistemology can be carried out that reveals the degree of difficulty of their reciprocal relationships, thus providing a well-grounded prediction of AI developmental trends, helping to confront the complementarity between human intelligence and AI, further promoting the integration of different algorithms and cognitive types, and confirming the rationality of the interpretation of the nature of cognition.