Wonder Tissue

Wonder tissue is Dennett's warning against assuming an unspecified special power of neural material to explain mental competence. Proposed capacities and mechanisms need evidence rather than being supplied by an evocative name.

Wonder tissue is Dennett's warning against beginning an explanation of mental competence by assuming that biological material has an unspecified special power. A proposed mechanism must earn its explanatory role rather than being granted whatever ability the account needs. An engineered demonstration can show that one capacity is possible without the proposed special ingredient, while leaving open whether a brain implements it the same way.

The general discipline is to identify what a label explains and what remains to be explained. Naming a process can be useful; it becomes a substitute for explanation when the name silently supplies the entire missing competence. Ask for operations, constraints, and discriminating evidence at an appropriate level. Not every worthwhile explanation must already reach molecular detail, and an unresolved mechanism is a legitimate result.

When to use it

When an account assigns the unexplained phenomenon to a mysterious component or treats a descriptive label as a complete mechanism.

How it can help

Identify what remains unexplained, ask what a proposed component actually does, and test discriminating implications at an appropriate explanatory level.