Full Idea
The modest mentalism of the Computational/Representational Theory of Thought (CRTT), associated with Fodor, says mental processes are computational, defined over syntactically specified entities, and these entities represent the world (are also semantic).
Gist of Idea
Is thought a syntactic computation using representations?
Source
report of Jerry A. Fodor (works [1986]) by Georges Rey - Contemporary Philosophy of Mind Int.3
Book Reference
Rey,Georges: 'Contemporary Philosophy of Mind' [Blackwell 1997], p.9
A Reaction
This seems to imply that if you built a machine that did all these things, it would become conscious, which sounds unlikely. Do footprints 'represent' feet, or does representation need prior consciousness?