Full Idea
The appeal of neural networks is that they automatically generalize their training to similar new items. If one has been trained to think tigers eat frosted flakes, it will generalise that lions do too, because it knows tigers as sets of features.
Clarification
Neural networks are the same as connectionist systems
Gist of Idea
Neural networks can generalise their training, e.g. truths about tigers apply mostly to lions
Source
Steven Pinker (The Blank Slate [2002], Ch.5)
Book Reference
Pinker,Steven: 'The Blank Slate' [Penguin 2003], p.79
A Reaction
This certainly is appealing, because it offers a mechanistic account of abstraction and universals, which everyone agrees are central to proper thinking.