more from Jerry A. Fodor

Single Idea 12641

[catalogued under 18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 1. Thought]

Full Idea

Connectionist architectures provide no counterpart to the relation between a complex concept and its constituents.

Gist of Idea

Connectionism gives no account of how constituents make complex concepts

Source

Jerry A. Fodor (LOT 2 [2008], Ch.3.3 n29)

Book Reference

Fodor,Jerry A.: 'LOT 2: the Language of Thought Revisited' [OUP 2008], p.63


A Reaction

This is the compositionality of thought, upon which Fodor is so insistent. Not that a theory of how the mind is built up from the body is quite likely to give you a theory about what thinking is. I try to keep them separate, which may be wrong.