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OXFORD COGNITIVE SCIENCE SERIES
CONCEPTS
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OXFORD COGNITIVE SCIENCE SERIES General Editors M D, J H, J O’K, C P, K P
Forthcoming in the series Context and Content Robert Stalnaker Mindreading Stephen Stich and Shaun Nichols Face and Mind: The Science of Face Perception Andy Young
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CONCEPTS Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong
JERRY A. FODOR
CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD 1998
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Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Bombay Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Jerry A. Fodor 1998 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. Within the UK, exceptions are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in other countries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0 –19 –823637–9 ISBN 0–19-823636–0 (pbk.) 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by Invisible Ink Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn
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for Janet, KP and Anthony; nuclear family
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Chorus: Zuruck! Tamino: . . . Zuruck? Da seh ich noch ein Tur, Vielleicht find ich den Eingang hier. —The Magic Flute
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PREFACE
A, I’m a little worried about the subtitle. There is already a big revisionist literature about what’s wrong with cognitive science, devoted to throwing out, along with the baby: the bath, the bath towel, the bathtub, the bathroom, many innocent bystanders, and large sections of Lower Manhattan. The diagnoses that these books offer differ quite a lot among themselves, and there’s a real worry that the patient may die of overprescription. What’s wrong with cognitive science is that, strictly speaking, there aren’t any mental states at all. Or, strictly speaking, there aren’t any mental states except the conscious ones. Or, strictly speaking, intentionality is in the eye of the beholder. Or of the interpreter. Or of the translator. Or it’s just a stance. Or it’s a coarse grid over a neural network. Or whatever. I find those sorts of views simply not credible, and I have no desire to add to their ranks. On the very large issues, this book is entirely committed to the traditional cognitive science program: higher organisms act out of the content of thei