Language and Thought Series – serie

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.

In this introduction to the philosophical problems underlying the modern study of mind and behavior, Ned Block has collected the most important papers by the major figures in the field. He provides the only central reference work now available for scholars and students in this growing area of inquiry. Volume I covers general approaches to the study of the mind: behaviorism, reductionism, and functionalism.