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Single Idea 12649

[filed under theme 18. Thought / B. Mechanics of Thought / 5. Mental Files ]

Full Idea

We think in file names.

Gist of Idea

We think in file names

Source

Jerry A. Fodor (LOT 2 [2008], Ch.3 App)

Book Ref

Fodor,Jerry A.: 'LOT 2: the Language of Thought Revisited' [OUP 2008], p.95

A Reaction

This is Fodor's new view. He cites Treisman and Schmidt (1982) for raising it, and Pylyshyn (2003) for discussing it. I love it. It exactly fits my introspective view of how I think, and I think it would fit animals. It might not fit some other people!

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]