The Language of Thought

The Language of Thought PDF Author: Jerry A. Fodor
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674510302
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
In a compelling defense of the speculative approach to the philosophy of mind, Jerry Fodor argues that, while our best current theories of cognitive psychology view many higher processes as computational, computation itself presupposes an internal medium of representation. Fodor's prime concerns are to buttress the notion of internal representation from a philosophical viewpoint, and to determine those characteristics of this conceptual construct using the empirical data available from linguistics and cognitive psychology.

The Language of Thought

The Language of Thought PDF Author: Jerry A. Fodor
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674510302
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
In a compelling defense of the speculative approach to the philosophy of mind, Jerry Fodor argues that, while our best current theories of cognitive psychology view many higher processes as computational, computation itself presupposes an internal medium of representation. Fodor's prime concerns are to buttress the notion of internal representation from a philosophical viewpoint, and to determine those characteristics of this conceptual construct using the empirical data available from linguistics and cognitive psychology.

The Language of Thought

The Language of Thought PDF Author: Susan Schneider
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262015579
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Preface p. ix 1 Introduction p. 1 2 The Central System as a Computational Engine p. 27 3 Jerry Fodor's Globality Challenge to the Computational Theory of Mind Kirk Ludwig p. 65 4 What LOT's Mental States Cannot Be: Ruling out Alternative Conceptions p. 91 5 Mental Symbols p. 111 6 Idiosyncratic Minds Think Alike: Modes of Presentation Reconsidered p. 135 7 Concepts: A Pragmatist Theory p. 159 8 Solving the Frege Cases p. 183 9 Conclusion p. 229 References p. 233 Index p. 249.

Language in Mind

Language in Mind PDF Author: Dedre Gentner
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262571630
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 548

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Book Description
The idea that the language we speak influences the way we think has evoked perennial fascination and intense controversy. According to the strong version of this hypothesis, called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis after the American linguists who propounded it, languages vary in their semantic partitioning of the world, and the structure of one's language influences how one understands the world. Thus speakers of different languages perceive the world differently. Although the last two decades have been marked by extreme skepticism concerning the possible effects of language on thought, recent theoretical and methodological advances in cognitive science have given the question new life. Research in linguistics and linguistic anthropology has revealed striking differences in cross-linguistic semantic patterns, and cognitive psychology has developed subtle techniques for studying how people represent and remember experience. It is now possible to test predictions about how a given language influences the thinking of its speakers. Language in Mind includes contributions from both skeptics and believers and from a range of fields. It contains work in cognitive psychology, cognitive development, linguistics, anthropology, and animal cognition. The topics discussed include space, number, motion, gender, theory of mind, thematic roles, and the ontological distinction between objects and substances. Contributors Melissa Bowerman, Eve Clark, Jill de Villiers, Peter de Villiers, Giyoo Hatano, Stan Kuczaj, Barbara Landau, Stephen Levinson, John Lucy, Barbara Malt, Dan Slobin, Steven Sloman, Elizabeth Spelke, and Michael Tomasello

The Stuff of Thought

The Stuff of Thought PDF Author: Steven Pinker
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101202602
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description
This New York Times bestseller is an exciting and fearless investigation of language from the author of Rationality, The Better Angels of Our Nature and The Sense of Style and Enlightenment Now. "Curious, inventive, fearless, naughty." --The New York Times Book Review Bestselling author Steven Pinker possesses that rare combination of scientific aptitude and verbal eloquence that enables him to provide lucid explanations of deep and powerful ideas. His previous books - including the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Blank Slate - have catapulted him into the limelight as one of today's most important popular science writers. In The Stuff of Thought, Pinker presents a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. Considering scientific questions with examples from everyday life, The Stuff of Thought is a brilliantly crafted and highly readable work that will appeal to fans of everything from The Selfish Gene and Blink to Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

The Language of Thought in Late Medieval Philosophy

The Language of Thought in Late Medieval Philosophy PDF Author: Jenny Pelletier
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319666347
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 463

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Book Description
This edited volume presents new lines of research dealing with the language of thought and its philosophical implications in the time of Ockham. It features more than 20 essays that also serve as a tribute to the ground-breaking work of a leading expert in late medieval philosophy: Claude Panaccio. Coverage addresses topics in the philosophy of mind and cognition (externalism, mental causation, resemblance, habits, sensory awareness, the psychology, illusion, representationalism), concepts (universal, transcendental, identity, syncategorematic), logic and language (definitions, syllogisms, modality, supposition, obligationes, etc.), action theory (belief, will, action), and more. A distinctive feature of this work is that it brings together contributions in both French and English, the two major research languages today on the main theme in question. It unites the most renowned specialists in the field as well as many of Claude Panaccio’s former students who have engaged with his work over the years. In furthering this dialogue, the essays render key topics in fourteenth-century thought accessible to the contemporary philosophical community without being anachronistic or insensitive to the particularities of the medieval context. As a result, this book will appeal to a general population of philosophers and historians of philosophy with an interest in logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics.

Mappings in Thought and Language

Mappings in Thought and Language PDF Author: Gilles Fauconnier
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521599535
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Meaning in everyday thought and language is constructed at lightning speed. We are not conscious of the staggering complexity of the cognitive operations that drive our simplest behavior. This 1997 book examines a central component of meaning construction: the mappings that link mental spaces. A deep result of the research is that the same principles operate at the highest levels of scientific, artistic, and literary thought, and at the lower levels of elementary understanding and sentence meaning. Some key cognitive operations are analogical mappings, conceptual integration and blending, discourse management, induction and recursion. The analyses are based on a rich array of attested data in ordinary language, humor, action and design, science, and narratives. Phenomena that receive attention include counterfactuals; time, tense, and mood; opacity; metaphor; fictive motion; grammatical constructions; quantification over cognitive domains.

The Linguistic Shaping of Thought

The Linguistic Shaping of Thought PDF Author: A. H. Bloom
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1317769910
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
First published in 1981. Using his fourteen years of interaction with the Chinese language and its speakers the author has noted certain important differences between the Chinese mode of speaking and thinking and that of speakers of English. This study looks at the impact of these differences looking at how they increase the sensitivity to what Chinese speakers mean; how they heighten awareness of the biases implicit in the way English speakers speak and think; and how they challenge the assumption, currently lurking within the field of psychology, that languages have little impact on the shaping of cognitive life.

A User's Guide to Thought and Meaning

A User's Guide to Thought and Meaning PDF Author: Ray Jackendoff
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191620688
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
A User's Guide to Thought and Meaning presents a profound and arresting integration of the faculties of the mind - of how we think, speak, and see the world. Ray Jackendoff starts out by looking at languages and what the meanings of words and sentences actually do. He shows that meanings are more adaptive and complicated than they're commonly given credit for, and he is led to some basic questions: How do we perceive and act in the world? How do we talk about it? And how can the collection of neurons in the brain give rise to conscious experience? As it turns out, the organization of language, thought, and perception does not look much like the way we experience things, and only a small part of what the brain does is conscious. Jackendoff concludes that thought and meaning must be almost completely unconscious. What we experience as rational conscious thought - which we prize as setting us apart from the animals - in fact rides on a foundation of unconscious intuition. Rationality amounts to intuition enhanced by language. Written with an informality that belies both the originality of its insights and the radical nature of its conclusions, A User's Guide to Thought and Meaning is the author's most important book since the groundbreaking Foundations of Language in 2002.

The Languages of the Brain

The Languages of the Brain PDF Author: Albert M. Galaburda
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674007727
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
The only way we can convey our thoughts to another person is through verbal language. Does this imply that our thoughts ultimately rely on words? This text takes the contrary position, arguing that many possible 'languages of thought' play different roles in the life of the mind.

Thought and Language

Thought and Language PDF Author: L. S. Vygotskii
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description