Information about Language Of Thought
Fodor's language of thought (LOT) hypothesis states that cognition is a process of computation over compositional mental representations. This means that thoughts are represented in a "language" (sometimes known as mentalese) which allows complex thoughts to be built up by combining simpler thoughts in various ways. It is clear from the biology of the brain that these mental representations are not present in the same way as symbols written on paper; rather, the LOT is supposed to exist at the cognitive level, the level of thoughts and concepts. For example the thought that "John is tall" is clearly composed of at least two sub-parts: the concept of John (the person), and the concept of tallness. The manner in which these two sub-parts are combined could be expressed in first-order predicate calculus:
This expression states that the predicate 'T' ("is tall") holds of the entity 'j' (John). A fully articulated proposal for what a language of thought might look like would have to be more complex than a simple extensional logical representation such as this, since it would have to take into account complex aspects of human thought such as quantification and propositional attitudes (the various attitudes people can have towards statements; for example I might believe that John is tall, but on the other hand I could merely suspect that John is tall).
The LOT hypothesis has wide-ranging significance for a number of domains in cognitive science. It implies a strongly rationalist model of cognition in which many of the fundamentals of cognition are innate, and challenges eliminative materialism and connectionism.
Other philosophers, following Ludwig Wittgenstein, have argued that our public language is used as our mental language; that a person who speaks English thinks in English. Others contend that people who do not know a public language (e.g. babies, aphasics) can think, and that therefore some form of mentalese must be present innately.
- T(j)
This expression states that the predicate 'T' ("is tall") holds of the entity 'j' (John). A fully articulated proposal for what a language of thought might look like would have to be more complex than a simple extensional logical representation such as this, since it would have to take into account complex aspects of human thought such as quantification and propositional attitudes (the various attitudes people can have towards statements; for example I might believe that John is tall, but on the other hand I could merely suspect that John is tall).
The LOT hypothesis has wide-ranging significance for a number of domains in cognitive science. It implies a strongly rationalist model of cognition in which many of the fundamentals of cognition are innate, and challenges eliminative materialism and connectionism.
Other philosophers, following Ludwig Wittgenstein, have argued that our public language is used as our mental language; that a person who speaks English thinks in English. Others contend that people who do not know a public language (e.g. babies, aphasics) can think, and that therefore some form of mentalese must be present innately.
See also
Private language argumentReferences
- Ravenscroft, Ian, Philosophy of mind. Oxford University press, 2005. pp 91.
External links
- The Language of Thought Hypothesis at The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Language of Thought - by Larry Kaye.
Jerry Alan Fodor (born 1935) is an American philosopher and cognitive scientist currently teaching at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He is the author of many works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science in which he laid the groundwork for the modularity of
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Cognition is a diffuse term, used in different ways by different disciplines. In psychology, it refers to an information processing view of an individual's psychological functions.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
In animals, the brain or encephalon (Greek for "in the skull"), is the control center of the central nervous system, responsible for behavior. The brain is located in the head, protected by the skull and close to the primary sensory apparatus of vision, hearing,
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
First-order logic (FOL) is a formal deductive system used by mathematicians, philosophers, linguists, and computer scientists. It goes by many names, including: first-order predicate calculus (FOPC), the lower predicate calculus,
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The term quantification has several meanings, general and specific. Primarily it covers all those acts which quantify observations and experiences by converting them into numbers through counting and measuring. It is thus the basis for mathematics and for science.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
A propositional attitude is a relational mental state connecting a person to a proposition. They are often assumed to be the simplest components of thought and can express meanings or content that can be true or false.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Cognitive science is most simply defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e.g. Luger 1994). It is an interdisciplinary study drawing from relevant fields including psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, computer science,
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286). In more technical terms it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive" (Bourke 263).
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Eliminative materialism (also called eliminativism) is a materialist position in the philosophy of mind. Its primary claim is that people's common-sense understanding of the mind (or folk psychology) is false and that certain classes of mental states that most people believe
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Connectionism is an approach in the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology/cognitive science, neuroscience and philosophy of mind. Connectionism models mental or behavioral phenomena as the emergent processes of interconnected networks of simple units.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (IPA: ['luːtvɪç 'joːzɛf 'joːhan 'vɪtgənʃtaɪn]
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
MeSH D001037
Aphasia (or aphemia) is a loss of the ability to produce and/or comprehend language, due to injury to brain areas specialized for these functions. It is not a result of deficits in sensory, intellect, or psychiatric functioning.
..... Click the link for more information.
Aphasia (or aphemia) is a loss of the ability to produce and/or comprehend language, due to injury to brain areas specialized for these functions. It is not a result of deficits in sensory, intellect, or psychiatric functioning.
..... Click the link for more information.
The private language argument is a philosophical argument said to be found in Ludwig Wittgenstein's later work, especially in Philosophical Investigations. The argument was central to philosophical discussion at the end of the last century, and continues to arouse interest.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus
