---
title: "A Symbol Is Not a Symbol"
authors:
  - "Nils Dahlbäck"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1989/2"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1989/0002.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1989
pages: "8-13"
track: "Foundations"
keywords:
---

# A Symbol Is Not a Symbol

Nils Dahlbäck

*Proceedings of the Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 8-13.

## Abstract

One of the weak points of the present critics of AI is their lack of an alternative cognitive theory. In the paper the outline of such a theory is sketched, based on (one reading) of Piaget's genetic epistemology. This is used to clarify the ambiguity of the terms 'symbol' and 'representation', thereby making it possible to suggest a reconciliation of the positions of the critics and defenders of the representational theory of the mind.