Combining Philosophers

Ideas for H.Putnam/P.Oppenheim, John L. Pollock and A Clark / D Chalmers

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2 ideas

11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 4. Belief / a. Beliefs
A notebook counts as memory, if is available to consciousness and guides our actions [Clark/Chalmers]
     Full Idea: Beliefs are partly constituted by features of the environment. ....a notebook plays for one person the same role that memory plays for another. ...The information is reliably there, available to consciousness, and to guide action, just as belief is.
     From: A Clark / D Chalmers (The Extended Mind [1998], §4)
     A reaction: This is the modern externalist approach to beliefs (along with broad content and external cognition systems). Not quite what we used to mean by beliefs, but we'll get used to it. I believe Plato wrote what it said in his books. Is memory just a role?
11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 4. Belief / f. Animal beliefs
Defeasible reasoning requires us to be able to think about our thoughts [Pollock]
     Full Idea: Defeasible reasoning requires us to be able to think about our thoughts.
     From: John L. Pollock (Epistemic Norms [1986], 'Cog.Mach')
     A reaction: This is why I do not think animals 'know' anything, though they seem to have lots of true beliefs about their immediate situation.