Wojtek Mamak

Wojtek Mamak

Philosopher and historian of science

Publications

Dissertation

Information-based Explanations in Cognitive Science

Published in PhD Dissertation, Graduate School for Social Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, 2026

This dissertation defends a refined “neo-Information Processing Paradigm” (neo-IPP) to provide renewed support for an information-based, but mechanistically grounded foundation for cognitive science. By biologically anchoring representations in neuronal architectures and redefining how information is formatted and consumed, the theoretical framework rescues the necessity of internal representations from recent enactivist and interactivist critiques. Finally, empirical stress tests involving data compression, Representational Similarity Analysis, and generativity demonstrate that this informational approach remains indispensable for explaining flexible, high-level cognition.

Recommended citation: Mamak, W. (2026). Information-based Explanations in Cognitive Science, PhD Dissertation, Polish Academy of Sciences.
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Journal Articles

Representing As Compressing. Bridging the Biological and Artificial Perceptual Systems

Published in Draft (submitted to 'Minds & Machines')

I argue for the need to conceptualize representations as information-compressor - a view that has surprisingly eluded the debates on representational properties.

Recommended citation: Mamak, W (draft). Representing As Compressing. Bridging the Biological and Artificial Perceptual Systems: A Case for Information-based Explanations in Cognitive Science.
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What Does It Mean To Generate Information

Published in Draft (submitted to 'Synthese')

This paper is the first (to my knowledge) attemt to rigorously define generativity, understood as generation of contentfully novel information

Recommended citation: Mamak, W. (draft). On Generating Information
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Review of ‘The Cooperative Neuron - William Phillips’

Published in Philosophy of Science, 2026

Review of the monography “The Cooperative Neuron: Cellular Foundations of Mental Life” by William Phillips, published by Oxford University Press

Recommended citation: Mamak, W. (forthcoming). Review of "The Cooperative Neuron" - William Phillips, OUP
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Meaning from Matching: How Representational Mechanisms Exploit Structural Similarity.

Published in THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science., 2025

We propose utilizing infomorphisms as introduced by Barwise and Seligman (1997) in order to explain the flow of semantic information via structural similarity. Repsresentational Similarity Analysis (RSA) used in neuroscience is used as an empirical demonstration of the empirical utility of our framework.

Recommended citation: Mamak, W., & Milkowski, M. (2025). Meaning from matching: How representational mechanisms exploit structural similarity. THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science. https://doi.org/10.1387/theoria.25171
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Forsaking the False Gods: Philosopher’s Analytic Approach to Cyberpunk Literature

Published in A Roundtable on Interdisciplinary Literary studies (ed. Paweł Wojtas, Wyd. Artes Liberales UW, 2014

By combining insight from literary studies and metaethics, I argue that sci-fi literature should be understood as a controlled environment for though experiments testing the limits of ethical theories.

Recommended citation: Mamak, W. (2014). Forsaking the False Gods: Philosopher’s analytic approach to cyberpunk literature. In P. Wojtas (Ed.), A roundtable on interdisciplinary literary studies (pp. 81-90). Faculty of Artes Liberales, University of Warsaw.
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You can also find my articles on my Google Scholar profile.