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Written by one of today's most creative and innovative philosophers, Ruth Garrett Millikan, this book examines basic empirical concepts; how they are acquired, how they function, and how they have been misrepresented in the traditional philosophical literature. In a radical departure from current philosophical and psychological theories of concepts, this book provides the first in-depth discussion on the psychological act of reidentification. It will be of interest to a broad range of students of philosophy, especially those interested in the application of evolutionary theory to analytic philosophy.
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On Clear and Confused Ideas Written by one of today’s most creative and innovative philosophers, Ruth Garrett Millikan, On Clear and Confused Ideas examines our most basic kind of empirical concepts: how they are acquired, how they function, and how they have been misrepresented in the traditional philosophical and psychological literature. Millikan assumes that human cognition is an outgrowth of primitive forms of mentality and that it has “functions” in the biological sense. In addition to her novel thesis on the internal nature of empirical concepts, of particular interest are her discussions of the nature of abilities as different from dispositions, her detailed analysis of the psychological act of reidentifying substances, her discussion of the interdependence of language and thought, and her critique of the language of thought for mental representation. Millikan argues that the central job of cognition is the exceedingly difficult task of reidentifying individuals, properties, kinds, and so forth, through diverse media and under diverse conditions. A cognitive system must attend to the integrity of its own mental semantics, which requires that it correctly reidentify sources of incoming information. In a radical departure from current philosophical and psychological theories of concepts, this book provides the first in-depth discussion on the psychological act of reidentification. It will be of interest to a broad range of students of philosophy and psychology. Ruth Garrett Millikan is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of Language Thought and Other Biological Categories and White Queen Psychology and Other Essays for Alice.
cambridge studies in philosophy General editor ernest sosa (Brown University) Advisory editors: jonathan dancy (University of Reading) john haldane (University of St. Andrews) gilbert harman (Princeton University) frank jackson (Australian National University) william g. lycan (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) sydney shoemaker (Cornell University) judith j. thomson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) RECENT TITLES: lynne rudder baker Explaining Attitudes robert a. wilson Cartesian Psychology and Physical Minds barry maund Colours michael devitt Coming to Our Senses michael zimmerman The Concept of Moral Obligation michael stocker with elizabeth hegeman Valuing Emotions sydney shoemaker The First-Person Perspective and Other Essays norton nelkin Consciousness and the Origins of Thought mark lance and john o’leary hawthorne The Grammar of Meaning d.m. armstrong A World of States of Affairs pierre jacob What Minds Can Do andre gallois The World Without, the Mind Within fred feldman Utilitarianism, Hedonism, and Desert laurence bonjour In Defense of Pure Reason david lewis Papers in Philosophical Logic wayne davis Implicature david cockburn Other Times david lewis Papers on Metaphysics and Epistemology raymond martin Self-Concern annette barnes Seeing Through Self-Deception michael bratman Faces of Intention amie thomasson Fiction and Metaphysics david lewis Papers on Ethics and Social Philosophy fred dretske Perception, Knowledge and Belief lynne rudder baker Persons and Bodies john greco