Naslov
The Language of Thought and Conceptual Semantics

Autori
Žanić, Joško

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
The 11th Symposium "Contemporary Philosophical Issues" / Baccarini, E. ; Trobok, M. ; Šustar, P. ; Malatesti, L. ; Čeč, F. - Rijeka : FFri, HDAF, 2009, 12-12

Skup
Contemporary Philosophical Issues

Mjesto i datum
Rijeka, Hrvatska, 29.05.2009. - 30.05.2009

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
language of thought; conceptual semantics; informational atomism

Sažetak
The paper discusses Fodor's Language of Thought and the semantics he subsequently developed for it in relation to the framework in the study of language and mind called Conceptual Semantics and pursued by Ray Jackendoff and Steven Pinker. First, certain points of convergence between Fodor and CS are pointed out: namely, the adherence to mentalism as a general approach to language and mind, and therefore the rejection of behaviorism as well as the Whorfian hypothesis of the crucial dependence of thought on language ; also, the view of the mind as a representational-computational system, and therefore the rejection of a Lakoffian view of the mind as crucially embodied and metaphorical. Second, Fodor's Informational Atomism, as the semantics he offers for LoT, namely the thesis that content is exhaustively constituted by mind-world relations and that (most) lexical concepts have no internal strucutre, is criticized along these lines: that, in using notions such as "resonating/locking to a property" as key explanatory concepts, it is opaque and implausible ; that the causal account of content, which is meant to be purely naturalistic, involves normative intuitions ; and that the externalistic approach to meaning generally fails to appreciate the creative powers of the mind. Finally, componential analysis of meaning, one of the cornerstones of Conceptual Semantics, is defended against Fodor's criticisms, primarily by arguing that decomposition of lexical concepts is necessary for learnability (it is also pointed out that Fodor's approach to the lexicon leaves us with nothing to investigate). Some possible reconstruals of componential analysis are also offered with the aim of making it more plausible.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filozofija

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