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Full Idea
In causal theories of knowledge and reference, the causal chain between object and thought must be of the "right" sort - the nature of rightness to be specified later, typically.
Gist of Idea
Causal theories require the "right" sort of link (usually unspecified)
Source
Daniel C. Dennett (Elbow Room: varieties of free will [1984], §3.3 n14)
Book Ref
Dennett,Daniel C.: 'Elbow Room - Free will worth wanting' [MIT 1999], p.58
A Reaction
This is now the standard objection to a purely causal account of reference. Which of the many causal chains causes the meaning? Knowledge of maths is a further problem for it.
| 3791 | Awareness of thought is a step beyond awareness of the world [Dennett] |
| 3794 | Foreknowledge permits control [Dennett] |
| 3795 | Causal theories require the "right" sort of link (usually unspecified) [Dennett] |
| 3796 | The active self is a fiction created because we are ignorant of our motivations [Dennett] |
| 3798 | An overexamined life is as bad as an unexamined one [Dennett] |
| 3797 | I am the sum total of what I directly control [Dennett] |
| 3800 | You can be free even though force would have prevented you doing otherwise [Dennett, by PG] |
| 3801 | Rationality requires the assumption that things are either for better or worse [Dennett] |
| 3802 | Why pronounce impossible what you cannot imagine? [Dennett] |
| 3803 | Can we conceive of a being with a will freer than our own? [Dennett] |