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Single Idea 3086
[filed under theme 18. Thought / B. Mechanics of Thought / 4. Language of Thought
]
Full Idea
The theory of language-independent meanings or semantic representations is mistaken.
Gist of Idea
Are there any meanings apart from in a language?
Source
Gilbert Harman (Thought [1973], 6.5)
Book Ref
Harman,Gilbert: 'Thought' [Princeton 1977], p.97
A Reaction
This would make him (in Dummett's terms) a 'philosopher of language' rather than a 'philosopher of thought'. Personally I disagree. Don't animals have 'meanings'? Can two sentences share a meaning?
The
19 ideas
with the same theme
[brains have an in-built private language ('Mentalese')]:
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2605
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If everything uses mentalese, ALL concepts must be innate!
[Putnam]
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2606
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No machine language can express generalisations
[Putnam]
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3086
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Are there any meanings apart from in a language?
[Harman]
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3996
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Folk psychology doesn't say that there is a language of thought
[Lewis]
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2524
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A language of thought doesn't explain content
[Dennett]
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4874
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The predecessor and rival of the language of thought hypothesis is the picture theory of ideas
[Dennett]
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2480
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Language is ambiguous, but thought isn't
[Fodor]
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2487
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Mentalese may also incorporate some natural language
[Fodor]
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2483
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Mentalese doesn't require a theory of meaning
[Fodor]
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8090
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Since the language of thought is the same for all, it must be something like logical form
[Fodor, by Devlin]
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12643
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Ambiguities in English are the classic reason for claiming that we don't think in English
[Fodor]
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2604
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We must have expressive power BEFORE we learn language
[Fodor]
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3010
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Belief and desire are structured states, which need mentalese
[Fodor]
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3213
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Animals may also use a language of thought
[Rey]
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3170
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We train children in truth, not in grammar
[Rey]
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7715
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Mentalese isn't a language, because it isn't conventional, or a means of public communication
[Lowe]
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4927
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Information-processing views of the brain assume the existence of 'information', and dubious brain codes
[Edelman/Tononi]
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11121
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Language of thought has subject/predicate form and includes logical devices
[Margolis/Laurence]
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17767
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The alternative to a language of thought is map-like or diagram-like thought
[Bayne]
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