Abstract
This book set out to mould out a space for computational methods within the enactive paradigm in cognitive science. It promotes simulation models, not as thinking machines, but as machines for thinking. It presents case studies, to give concrete examples of how simple simulation models can contribute to the explanation of mind, without the accompanying claim that they would be minds themselves, embedded in the context of conceptual methodological debate, making explicit the shift of perspective that marks the enactive approach, which frequently results in asking the unusual and non-obvious questions. Hopefully, even if the reader does not want to go all the way with me, he or she now understands the characteristics of the enactive paradigm and its assets in terms of scientific explanation. This last chapter summarises and evaluates the presented collection of facts, ideas and results and returns to the methodological theme of the book: can a post-cognitivist science of human level cognition be informed by simple ER simulation models? What can such simple models contribute, what is their role in scientific explanation? Section 12.1 summarises the material presented in this book, Sect. 12.2 evaluates them before the concluding remark in Sect. 12.3.