Magdalena Szalewicz

The article argues that our concepts are deeply rooted in the architecture of visual processing. The argument is based on evidence provided by two seemingly very distant theories of mind together with two sorts of corresponding visions: Freud’s theory of dreams, which suggests oneiric visions represent our thoughts and the mechanical model of the mind developed in the context of computer science. As will be argued, Freud’s findings are in fact supported by advances in this field, in particular by deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) which mirror the activity of visual cortex, producing visions strikingly similar to dreams. An in-depth analysis of such images, supported by insights from empiricism and conceptual metaphor theory, reveals that they represent visual universals, as well as more fragmentary notions pertaining to features, and complete abstractions, such as those found in language and in mathematics. This finding points towards a more comprehensive thesis about the links of vision to reflection: the crucial insight that will be developed and defended in this article is that the architecture of visual processing is the basis of the conceptual structures that underpin cognition.

The article considers the problem of images and the role they play in our reflection turning to evidence provided by two seemingly very distant theories of mind together with two sorts of corresponding visions: dreams as analyzed by Freud who claimed that they are pictures of our thoughts, and their mechanical counterparts produced by neural networks designed for object recognition and classification. Freud’s theory of dreams has largely been ignored by philosophers interested in cognition, most of whom focused solely on the linguistic incarnation of thoughts, but even though commonly neglected by respectable theories of thinking, dream images may prove to be the key to the black box of thought. As argued in this article, when seen from the right perspective and approached with the right set of questions, oneiric visions yield groundbreaking insights into the mechanism of how concepts and judgments are formed. Support for this conclusion comes from a tradition seemingly remote, if not opposed to psychoanalysis: the mechanical model of the mind conceived by information sciences and embodied in the form of artificial neural nets which mirror the activity of human visual cortex producing visions strikingly similar to those created by the sleeping mind. These purely mechanical, artificial ‘dreams’ constitute byproducts of algorithms designed for object recognition and classification, which, as I shall argue, reveals the true purpose of our own oneiric visual formations. Just like their mechanical counterparts produced by neural networks, condensations and displacements encountered in dreams are in fact visual universals.