I think ~4 years ago, Iris and I 1st sat down and formalised various meanings of function and multiple realizability — both core concepts for any serious computationalist discussions — because in part we realised nobody has done this and/or collected these for cogsci.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19388964
@Iris thread here for more: https://scholar.social/@Iris/116359421483392573
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@Iris covers the main points in her thread, but I just want to sign post a few things that I think are important — do just read the very short paper itself if you're curious as it's about 2 pages worth of main text / formalisms:
> notions of MR have existed for millennia.
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MR has existed since min. the Ancient Greeks; Voula Tsouna:
“Epicurus’ conception of the pollachos tropos [method of multiple explanations] is rich, nuanced, fairly coherent,
and strongly motivated by methodological and scientific considerations”
More about Voula's work:
https://www.bsa.ac.uk/videos/voula-tsouna-issues-in-epicurean-philosophy-of-mind-and-science-the-method-of-multiple-explanations-in-epicureanism/
Our very short paper: Guest, O., Blokpoel, M., & van Rooij, I. (2026). What the Func? Multiple Realizability Need not be Vague. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19388964
Iris' better/full thread: https://scholar.social/@Iris/116359434570419394
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
Romeu Moura