Jerry A. Fodor's Language of Thought was a groundbreaking work, one advancing the cognitivist position to what I consider its logical, absurd, end: that humans are born with all the necessities of language, not just grammar and syntax and Chomsky would argue, but vocabulary as well. Since then, Fodor has, in a series of important works (Representations, The Modularity of Mind, Psychosemantics) articulated the position that thought is composed of sentences in the brain. This volume attempts the same project as the original Language of Thought, but taking into account the arguments raised in the 30 years since its publication. The problem is, the arguments are often stronger than Fodor would like, and he resorts to sweeping them under the rug. "The specific methods whereby our thought reaches semantic accommodation with the world are subtle and varied and careful attention to factors that Fodor dismisses as pragmatic ephemera will likely make up a vital part of the story."
Today: 5 Total: 1103 [Direct link] [Share]
