Degeneracy and redundancy in cognitive anatomy.

activity both gives rise to and unites physiological and psychological phenomena. The tension between the physiological approach endorsed by AL and the biological ‘constructivism’ of Piaget appears to reflect a deeper epistemological rift. Piaget endeavoured to overcome the deficiencies of empiricist–mechanistic and idealistic–vitalistic accounts to explain the development of intelligence. AL appears to seek to explain this development through an empiricist– mechanistic framework. This issue raises a lot of complex philosophical problems (e.g. mind–body problem) that cannot be easily resolved. AL would nicely complement and be consistent with Piaget if it limited its endeavour to explanation at the physiological level.