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Single Idea 11245
[filed under theme 18. Thought / B. Mechanics of Thought / 5. Mental Files
]
Full Idea
Many recollections of the same thing perform the function of a single experience.
Gist of Idea
Many memories make up a single experience
Source
Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 0980b28)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.4
A Reaction
This beautifully simple remark seems to me to be extremely important if we are going to understand the nature of thought. Personally I think it endorses the 'database' view of how the mind works (as a set of labelled 'files'). See Fodor's 'LOT2'.
The
24 ideas
with the same theme
[mind is like a filing system, with labelled folders]:
11245
|
Many memories make up a single experience
[Aristotle]
|
22976
|
Memories are preserved separately, according to category
[Augustine]
|
17236
|
Words are not for communication, but as marks for remembering what we have learned
[Hobbes]
|
16876
|
We need definitions to cram retrievable sense into a signed receptacle
[Frege]
|
16875
|
We use signs to mark receptacles for complex senses
[Frege]
|
16383
|
Puzzled Pierre has two mental files about the same object
[Recanati on Kripke]
|
12647
|
Mental representations name things in the world, but also files in our memory
[Fodor]
|
12649
|
We think in file names
[Fodor]
|
16369
|
There is a single file per object, memorised, reactivated, consolidated and expanded
[Papineau, by Recanati]
|
16362
|
An identity statement aims at getting the hearer to merge two mental files
[Lockwood]
|
15602
|
Mental files are devices for keeping track of basic coordination of objects
[Fine,K]
|
16371
|
Files can be confused, if two files correctly have a single name, or one file has two names
[Recanati]
|
16373
|
Encylopedic files have further epistemic links, beyond the basic one
[Recanati]
|
16375
|
Singular thoughts need a mental file, and an acquaintance relation from file to object
[Recanati]
|
16377
|
Expected acquaintance can create a thought-vehicle file, but without singular content
[Recanati]
|
16378
|
An 'indexed' file marks a file which simulates the mental file of some other person
[Recanati]
|
16387
|
Reference by mental files is Millian, in emphasising acquaintance, rather than satisfaction
[Recanati]
|
16358
|
The reference of a file is fixed by what it relates to, not the information it contains
[Recanati]
|
16361
|
A mental file treats all of its contents as concerning one object
[Recanati]
|
16367
|
There are transient 'demonstrative' files, habitual 'recognitional' files, cumulative 'encyclopedic' files
[Recanati]
|
16368
|
Files are hierarchical: proto-files, then first-order, then higher-order encyclopedic
[Recanati]
|
16370
|
A file has a 'nucleus' through its relation to the object, and a 'periphery' of links to other files
[Recanati]
|
22242
|
Mental files are concepts, which are either collections or (better) containers
[Recanati]
|
22243
|
The Frege case of believing a thing is both F and not-F is explained by separate mental files
[Recanati]
|