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Single Idea 8127

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 6. Anti-Individualism ]

Full Idea

Certain thought experiments made trouble for standard functionalism, which limits input/output to the surface of an individual; proposals to extend this into the environment reduces the reliance on a computer paradigm, but increases complexity.

Gist of Idea

Broad concepts suggest an extension of the mind into the environment (less computer-like)

Source

Tyler Burge (Philosophy of Mind: 1950-2000 [2005], p.454)

Book Ref

Burge,Tyler: 'Foundations of the Mind' [OUP 2007], p.454

A Reaction

[He has the Twin Earth experiment in mind] The jury is out on this, but it looks a bit of a slippery slope. Accounts of action and responsibility need a fairly sharp concept of an individual. Externalism begins to look like just a new scepticism.

The 14 ideas from Tyler Burge

9382 Subjects may be unaware of their epistemic 'entitlements', unlike their 'justifications' [Burge]
16892 Is apriority predicated mainly of truths and proofs, or of human cognition? [Burge]
16901 The equivalent algebra model of geometry loses some essential spatial meaning [Burge]
16902 Peano arithmetic requires grasping 0 as a primitive number [Burge]
9159 You can't simply convert geometry into algebra, as some spatial content is lost [Burge]
17622 We come to believe mathematical propositions via their grounding in the structure [Burge]
13479 Given that thinking aims at truth, logic gives universal rules for how to do it [Burge]
3115 Are meaning and expressed concept the same thing? [Burge, by Segal]
14349 If there are no finks or antidotes at the fundamental level, the laws can't be ceteris paribus [Burge, by Corry]
8126 Anti-individualism says the environment is involved in the individuation of some mental states [Burge]
8127 Broad concepts suggest an extension of the mind into the environment (less computer-like) [Burge]
8129 Anti-individualism may be incompatible with some sorts of self-knowledge [Burge]
8131 Some qualities of experience, like blurred vision, have no function at all [Burge]
8132 We now have a much more sophisticated understanding of logical form in language [Burge]