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Full Idea
Central state identity theorists had trouble providing for the nomological possibility of rational machines (and hence no space for a non-biological, e.g. computational, theory of intelligence).
Clarification
'Nomological' means concerned with rule-following
Gist of Idea
If mind is just physical, how can it follow the rules required for intelligent thought?
Source
Jerry A. Fodor (Psychosemantics [1987], p. 67)
Book Ref
Fodor,Jerry A.: 'Psychosemantics' [MIT 1993], p.67
A Reaction
I surmise that a more externalist account of the physical mind might do the trick, by explaining intelligence in terms of an evolved relationship between brain and environment.
| 1909 | How can pleasure or judgement occur in a heap of atoms? [Sext.Empiricus on Epicurus] |
| 5885 | Souls contain no properties of elements, and elements contain no properties of souls [Cicero] |
| 5951 | If atoms have no qualities, they cannot possibly produce a mind [Plutarch] |
| 6229 | Sense is fixed in the material form, and so can't grasp abstract universals [Cudworth] |
| 6382 | The 'grain problem' says physical objects are granular, where sensations appear not to be [Sellars, by Polger] |
| 5796 | If tree rings contain information about age, then age contains information about rings [Searle] |
| 2308 | Identity theory was overthrown by multiple realisations and causal anomalies [Kim] |
| 3002 | If mind is just physical, how can it follow the rules required for intelligent thought? [Fodor] |
| 6122 | No defences of physicalism can deprive psychology of the ontological authority of other sciences [Mellor/Crane] |
| 3150 | Can identity explain reason, free will, non-extension, intentionality, subjectivity, experience? [Rey] |
| 3129 | Physicalism offers something called "complexity" instead of mental substance [Rey] |
| 4072 | The completeness of physics must be an essential component of any physicalist view of mind [Crane] |
| 4598 | Functionalists emphasise that mental processes are not to be reduced to what realises them [Heil] |
| 3448 | Do new ideas increase the weight of the brain? [Dance] |