Comments on Bruce Smith’s work

Constructivism and Development: Reply to Smith’s Commentary

This article is a reply to the commentary made by Smith (1998) regarding these authors’ earlier article (1998), which proposes a modified constructivist account of the origins of mental representation. This article focuses on three aspects of Smith’s commentary. First, we elaborate on Smith’s discussion of differences between empiricist and constructivist approaches to development. Second, we d...

Comments on Annette Karmiloff-Smith’s (1992) book: Beyond Modularity: A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science

Further Comments on "Detection of Faults in Programmable Logic Arrays"

In a recent correspondence 111, Ye-Wei and Wei have shown two counterexamples which contradict Theorems 4 and 5 of Smith [2]. In his author’s reply [3], Smith has stated an additional condition under which Theorems 4 and 5 will hold good. In this correspondence, we provide a counterexample which contradicts Smith’s modified Theorem 5. We also provide another counterexample which contradicts eve...

Science fictions: Comment on Godfrey-Smith

This is a comment on Peter Godfrey-Smith’s, ‘‘Models and Fictions in Science’’. The comments explore problems he raises if we treat model systems as fictions in a naturalized and deflationary framework.

Maynard Smith on the levels of selection question

The levels of selection problem was central to Maynard Smith’s work throughout his career. This paper traces Maynard Smith’s views on the levels of selection, from his objections to group selection in the 1960s to his concern with the major evolutionary transitions in the 1990s. The relations between Maynard Smith’s position and those of Hamilton and G.C. Williams are explored, as is Maynard Sm...