scholarly journals Fodor’s guide to the Humean mind

Synthese ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamás Demeter
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
Jerry Fodor ◽  
Science Of Mind ◽  
Alternative Understanding

AbstractFor Jerry Fodor, Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature is “the foundational document of cognitive science” whose significance transcends mere historical interest: it is a source of theoretical inspiration in cognitive psychology. Here I am going to argue that those reading Hume along Fodor’s lines rely on a problematic, albeit inspiring, construction of Hume’s science of mind. My strategy in this paper is to contrast Fodor’s understanding of the Humean mind (consonant with the widely received view of Hume in both cognitive science and much of Hume scholarship) with an alternative understanding that I propose. I thereby intend to show that the received view of Hume’s science of mind can be fruitfully revised while critically engaging with Fodor’s contemporary appropriation. Consequently, I use this occasion to put forward a rather unorthodox interpretation of Hume’s theory in dialogue with Fodor as my guide.

Parsing the Frost

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie Levinson ◽  
Marjorie Levinson
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Frost Formation ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
Sensory Register

The reading of Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” at the center of this chapter opens up the cognitive and aesthetic stakes of seeing writing. It does so by analyzing the encounter with visible script, an experience that can be understood as a reworking of a previously unrecognized source, the scene of writing in David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature, Book 4. Just such an encounter is the activity in play with the figure of the window frost and with the entire poem. Broadly speaking, sentence formation is seen as analogous to frost formation. In this way, the discussion seeks to shift the sensory register of criticism of the poem from its traditional emphasis on the acoustic to a new appreciation of the visible.

Hume's Skepticism in the Treatise of Human Nature.

1988 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 263
Author(s):  
Michael Williams ◽  
Robert J. Fogelin
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature

Psychology: Autonomous or Anomalous?

Dialogue ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Kernohan
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Donald Davidson ◽  
Mental Activity ◽  
Essential Difference ◽  
Anomalous Monism

In a recent series of papers, Donald Davidson has put forward a challenging and original philosophy of mind which he has called anomalous monism. Anomalous monism has certain similarities to another recent and deservedly popular position: functionalist cognitive psychology. Both functionalism, in its materialist versions, and anomalous monism require token-token psychophysical identities rather than type-type ones. (Token identities are identities between individual events; type identities represent a stronger claim of identities between interesting sorts of events.) Both deny that psychology can be translated into, or scientifically reduced to, neurophysiology. Both are mentalistic theories, allowing psychology to make use of intentional descriptions in its theorizing. Anomalous monism uses a belief/desire/action psychology; cognitive science makes use of information-bearing states. But these similarities must not be allowed to conceal an essential difference between the two positions. Cognitive psychology claims to be a science, making interesting, lawlike generalizations for the purpose of explaining mental activity. Anomalous monism denies that psychology is a science by denying that psychological laws can be formulated. Davidson has other ideas for psychology connected with his work on meaning and truth. Hence, the title of one of his essays on anomalous monism is “Psychology as Philosophy”.

Psychological Characteristics of Cognition of Environmental Sculpture Information

2011 ◽  
Vol 187 ◽  
pp. 522-527
Author(s):  
He Yang
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Urban Culture ◽  
Space Environment ◽  
Psychological Characteristics ◽  
Architectural Language ◽  
Psychology Perspective ◽  
Integral Element ◽  
The Relationship

As an integral element of the space environment, the environmental sculpture plays an important role in the decoration of space environment, the expression of urban culture and reflection of the city's character, etc. Environmental sculpture is a visible symbol independent and outside of the sign of nature or architectural language, which has become an important cultural carrier between the communication of environment and people. From the perspective of cognitive science, this paper analyzes the relationship between people, environment and environmental sculpture to explore the psychological characteristics of cognition of environmental sculpture and examines, analyzes and interprets the phenomenon of environmental sculpture from the cognitive psychology perspective, which brings some enlightenment for the design of environment sculpture.

scholarly journals How Efficiency Shapes Human Language, TICS 2019

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Gibson ◽  
Richard Futrell ◽  
Steven T. Piantadosi ◽  
Isabelle Dautriche ◽  
Kyle Mahowald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Language Research ◽  
The Way

Cognitive science applies diverse tools and perspectives to study human language. Recently, an exciting body of work has examined linguistic phenomena through the lens of efficiency in usage: what otherwise puzzling features of language find explanation in formal accounts of how language might be optimized for communication and learning? Here, we review studies that deploy formal tools from probability and information theory to understand how and why language works the way that it does, focusing on phenomena ranging from the lexicon through syntax. These studies show how apervasive pressure for efficiency guides the forms of natural language and indicate that a rich future for language research lies in connecting linguistics to cognitive psychology and mathematical theories of communication and inference.

scholarly journals A call to arms: time to do cognitive science in Latin America

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
World Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Organizational ◽  
Research Domains

Previous theoretical reviews about the development of Psychology in Latin America suggest that Latin American psychology has a promising future. This paper empirically checks whether that status remains justified. In so doing, the frequency of programs/research domains in three salient psychological areas is assessed in Latin America and in two other regions of the world. A chi-square statistic is used to analyse the collected data. Programs/research domains and regions of the world are the independent variables and frequency of programs/research domains per world region is the dependent variable. Results suggest that whereas in Latin America the work on Social/Organizational Psychology is moving within expected parameters, there is a rather strong focus on Clinical/Psychoanalytical Psychology. Results also show that Experimental/Cognitive Psychology is much underestimated. In Asia, however, the focus on all areas of psychology seems to be distributed within expected parameters, whereas Europe outperforms regarding Experimental/Cognitive Psychology research. Potential reasons that contribute to Latin Americas situation are discussed and specific solutions are proposed. It is concluded that the scope of Experimental/Cognitive Psychology in Latin America should be broadened into a Cognitive Science research program.

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