Rationality as optimized cognitive self¬ regulation

Abstract

Abstract A central objective of our programme, motivated in no small part by Piaget’s genetic epistemology (Piaget, 1971), has been to help specify the important conditions and dimensions of growth in cognitive competences and cognitive regulation in complex (primate) systems over the course of evolution and development (McGonigle and Chalmers 1996, 1997; Chalmers and McGonigle, 1997). An ontological stance as espoused by general systems theorists (le Gare, 1987), we have developed in our own way, Piaget’s constructivist, epigenetic conception of rational systems from an ‘adaptive’ perspective, combining, where possible, formal as well as empirical approaches to the characterization of cognitive complexity. And this has led in turn to research within the programme concerned with the design of robots that can learn to learn and self-organize over an extended life history guided by research within our biological programme (McGonigle, 1991; Donnett and McGonigle, 1991; Nehmzow and McGonigle, 1993).