Determining the Metaphor of “the Mind as a Computer” and Criticizing its Implications in Education

In this article, which is written by descriptive-analytical and inferential methods, first, the philosophical implications of the metaphor of mind as the computer, were inferred from three perspectives: ontological, epistemological, and anthropological; Then, the elements of the curriculum were deduced from the mentioned philosophical implications, and finally, the implications of the metaphor in education were criticized. Since we think based on metaphors, according to the above metaphor the mind is passive and has a mechanistic view to the student. The student does not have individuality and freewill. Evaluation based on this approach is based on measuring low levels of educational goals and measuring memory instead of deep learning. The criticisms that have been made show that such an attitude towards human beings is not acceptable from a philosophical and especially from an educational point of view. The above-mentioned metaphor can only be useful in explaining the function of the mind or brain on the basis of a weak version of functionalism, and has no further implications.