We offer philosophical motivations for a method we call Virtual World Cognitive Science (VW CogSci), in which researchers use virtual embodied agents that are embedded in virtual worlds to explore questions in the field of Cognitive Science. We focus on questions about mental and linguistic representation and the ways that such computational modeling can add rigor to philosophical thought experiments, as well as the terminology used in the scientific study of such representations. We find that this method forces researchers to take a god's-eye view when describing dynamical relationships between entities in minds and entities in an environment in a way that eliminates the need for problematic talk of belief and concept types, such as the belief that cats are silly, and the concept CAT, while preserving belief and concept tokens in individual cognizers' minds. We conclude with some further key advantages of VW CogSci for the scientific study of mental and linguistic representation and for Cognitive Science more broadly.

翻译：我们为一种被称为“虚拟世界认知科学”（VW CogSci）的方法提供了哲学动机。在该方法中，研究者利用嵌入虚拟世界中的虚拟具身智能体，探索认知科学领域的问题。我们重点关注心智表征与语言表征的问题，以及这种计算建模如何能为哲学思想实验增添严谨性，同时也能为这些表征的科学研究所用术语提供严谨性。我们发现，该方法迫使研究者采用“上帝之眼”视角来描述心智实体与环境实体之间的动态关系，从而在保留个体认知者心智中的信念和概念个例（如“猫很傻”这一信念和“猫”这一概念）的同时，消除了对有问题的信念和概念类型（如“信念：猫很傻”和“概念：猫”）进行讨论的必要性。最后，我们总结了VW CogSci在心智表征与语言表征的科学研究中，以及更广泛的认知科学领域中的其它关键优势。