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：我们为一种名为“虚拟世界认知科学”的方法提供了哲学动机，该方法中研究者使用嵌入虚拟世界中的虚拟具身智能体来探索认知科学领域的问题。我们聚焦于心智与语言表征问题，以及这种计算建模如何为哲学思想实验和此类表征的科学研究术语增添严谨性。我们发现，该方法迫使研究者以“上帝视角”描述心智实体与环境实体之间的动态关系，从而无需再使用诸如“相信猫很蠢”这类信念和概念类型（如“猫”概念）的有争议性表述，同时保留个体认知者心智中的信念和概念实例。最后，我们总结了虚拟世界认知科学在心智与语言表征科学研究以及更广泛的认知科学领域中的若干关键优势。