International symposium
Cognition and Interpretation

Institute of philosophy,
Zagreb, October 10-11, 2003

Davor Pećnjak
Artificial Intelligence: A Priori or Empirical Science?

Summary

The question which is sometimes posed about artificial intelligence (henceforward AI) is whether it is a priori science like mathematics or empirical science like physics or chemistry. Some argue for the former and some for the latter. First, I would like to offer arguments that AI has parts which are empirical in nature or at least that it has parts which are loaded from and depend on experience. Of course that AI also has parts which are mathematical or a priori in nature. But, in a minimal sense, if it is enough that certain science has at least one claim or one part which is empirical for it to be an empirical science, then AI is an empirical science. Even if just one or several empirical claims are not enough to establish a certain science as an empirical science, I would like to show that AI has sufficient substantive empirical part to be considered as an empirical science.