Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Tim Bayne, John Austin and John Perry

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6 ideas

18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 8. Human Thought

17768	Perception reveals what animals think, but humans can disengage thought from perception [Bayne]
	Full Idea: One striking feature of human thought involves our ability to disengage the focus of thought from that of our perceptual attention. ...To get a fix on what an animal is thinking about, one need only determine the object of its perceptual attention.
	From: Tim Bayne (Thought: a very short introduction [2013], Ch.4)
	A reaction: What happens when an animal closes its eyes, or stirs violently during sleep? I take the hallmark of human thought to be its multi-level character, and this offers nice evidence for that view. Doing philosophy while driving a car is very revealing.

17769	Some people centre space on themselves; others centre space on the earth [Bayne]
	Full Idea: Egocentric conceptions of space employ a frame of reference that is focused on oneself; ...geocentric conceptions of space, by contrast, employ a frame of reference that is centred on the earth.
	From: Tim Bayne (Thought: a very short introduction [2013], Ch.5)
	A reaction: Famously, Europeans nearly always employ the egocentric conception, but many other cultures are geocentric. Thus the salt cellar is either 'to my left' or 'to the west'. In the latter view, everyone always knows their orientation (even indoors?).

18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 9. Indexical Thought

16391	Indexical thoughts are about themselves, and ascribe properties to themselves [Perry, by Recanati]
	Full Idea: Perry's newer token-reflexive framework says indexical thoughts have token-reflexive content, that is, thoughts that are about themselves and ascribe properties to themselves. …They relate not to the subject, but to the occurrence of a thought.
	From: report of John Perry (Reference and Reflexivity [2001]) by François Recanati - Mental Files 18.1
	A reaction: [There seem to be four indexical theories: this one, Recanati's, the earlier Kaplan-Perry one, and Lewis's] Is Perry thinking of second-level thoughts? 'I'm bored' has the content 'boredom' plus 'felt in here'? How does 'I'm bored' refer to 'I'm bored'?

18. Thought / B. Mechanics of Thought / 4. Language of Thought

17767	The alternative to a language of thought is map-like or diagram-like thought [Bayne]
	Full Idea: One could think that the structure of thought has more in common with that of maps or diagrams, and is not particularly language-like.
	From: Tim Bayne (Thought: a very short introduction [2013], Ch.2)
	A reaction: It seems unwise to be ensnared by analogies on this one, since the phenomenon is buried deep. You can no more infer what goes on underneath than you can infer electrons from looking at trees?

18. Thought / C. Content / 1. Content

4889	Although we may classify ideas by content, we individuate them differently, as their content can change [Perry]
	Full Idea: Although we classify ideas by content for many purposes, we do not individuate them by content. The content of an idea can change.
	From: John Perry (Knowledge, Possibility and Consciousness [2001], §3.2)
	A reaction: As the compiler of this database, I find this very appealing. The mind works exactly like a database. I have a 'file' (Perry's word) marked "London", the content of which undergoes continual change. I am a database management system.

18. Thought / C. Content / 8. Intension

4896	The intension of an expression is a function from possible worlds to an appropriate extension [Perry]
	Full Idea: In possible-worlds semantics, expressions have intensions, which are functions from possible worlds to appropriate extensions (names to individuals, n-place predicates to n-tuples, and sentences to truth values, built from parts).
	From: John Perry (Knowledge, Possibility and Consciousness [2001], §8.1)
	A reaction: Interesting. Perry distinguishes 'referential' (or 'subject matter') content, which is prior to the link to extensions - a link which creates 'reflexive' content. He is keen that they should not become confused. True knowledge is 'situated'.