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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')]:
2605
|
If everything uses mentalese, ALL concepts must be innate!
[Putnam]
|
2606
|
No machine language can express generalisations
[Putnam]
|
3086
|
Are there any meanings apart from in a language?
[Harman]
|
3996
|
Folk psychology doesn't say that there is a language of thought
[Lewis]
|
2524
|
A language of thought doesn't explain content
[Dennett]
|
4874
|
The predecessor and rival of the language of thought hypothesis is the picture theory of ideas
[Dennett]
|
2483
|
Mentalese doesn't require a theory of meaning
[Fodor]
|
2487
|
Mentalese may also incorporate some natural language
[Fodor]
|
2480
|
Language is ambiguous, but thought isn't
[Fodor]
|
8090
|
Since the language of thought is the same for all, it must be something like logical form
[Fodor, by Devlin]
|
12643
|
Ambiguities in English are the classic reason for claiming that we don't think in English
[Fodor]
|
2604
|
We must have expressive power BEFORE we learn language
[Fodor]
|
3010
|
Belief and desire are structured states, which need mentalese
[Fodor]
|
3213
|
Animals may also use a language of thought
[Rey]
|
3170
|
We train children in truth, not in grammar
[Rey]
|
7715
|
Mentalese isn't a language, because it isn't conventional, or a means of public communication
[Lowe]
|
4927
|
Information-processing views of the brain assume the existence of 'information', and dubious brain codes
[Edelman/Tononi]
|
11121
|
Language of thought has subject/predicate form and includes logical devices
[Margolis/Laurence]
|
17767
|
The alternative to a language of thought is map-like or diagram-like thought
[Bayne]
|