Full Idea
Millikan's 'biosemantic' view is that representations stand midway between producer and consumer systems. The represented states of affairs (the content) maps onto the second system, and thus enable its proper function.
Gist of Idea
Biosemantics says content is useful mapping from a producer to a consumer system
Source
report of Ruth Garrett Millikan (Varieties of Meaning [2002]) by Peter Schulte - Mental Content 4.4
Book Reference
Schulte,Peter: 'Mental Content' [CUP 2023], p.38
A Reaction
These meets my standard objection to all functional theories (e.g. of mind), that observing relations and functions tells you nothing about what it actually is. Millikan seems to explain the role of content, but says nothing about its actual nature.