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Single Idea 3996
[filed under theme 18. Thought / B. Mechanics of Thought / 4. Language of Thought
]
Full Idea
I don't believe that folk psychology says there is a language of thought.
Clarification
That is, ordinary talk of mental lives does not imply that we have an inner language in the brain
Gist of Idea
Folk psychology doesn't say that there is a language of thought
Source
David Lewis (Lewis: reduction of mind (on himself) [1994], p.422)
Book Ref
'A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind', ed/tr. Guttenplan,Samuel [Blackwell 1995], p.422
A Reaction
This is aimed at Jerry Fodor. Certainly folk psychology is a strong theory, but a so-called 'language of thought' (the brain's machine code) seems a much weaker one.
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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2483
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Mentalese doesn't require a theory of meaning
[Fodor]
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2480
|
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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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
|
We train children in truth, not in grammar
[Rey]
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7715
|
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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