Reading

• [Required] Block (????) "Conceptual Role Semantics" in The Routledge Encylopedia of Philosophy Routledge.
• Gallistel, C. R. (2001) "Mental representations, psychology of" in Encylopedia of the Behavioral and Social Sciences New York: Elsevier. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/faculty/GnG/Mental_Reps.pdf

Intentionality and content

• notes
• X represents Y; X means Y; X is a representation of Y.
• Perceptual states, memory, beliefs, concepts, images ...

Gallistel

A mental representation is a system of symbols isomorphic to some aspect of the environment, used to make behavior-generating decisions that anticipate events and relations in that environment.

• Seems applicable to some representations:

  

• Muller-Lyer illusion : Which is longer?

  

• The cafewall illusion

  

• Objection : With perceptual illusions, the contents of the perceptual experiences do not appear to be isomorphic to the structures in the world.

Tye

X represents Y in a creature Z = under optimal or normal conditions, (1) X exists in Z if and only if Y exists, and (2) X comes about in Z because of Y.

• This proposal allows misrepresentation.
• But what about : beliefs about Santa Claus, thoughts about the future, desires

Higher representations

• Perceptual representations - representations involved in preception
• But there are other representations which are not so directly involved in perception, e.g. the representations that constitute beliefs.
• How are their contents to be explained by co-variational theories of content?

Conceptual role semantics

• The content of a representation is defined by its role in cognition, e.g. reasoning, decision, perception, memory.
• What does "#" mean?

  P#Q ------ P

  P#Q ------ Q

  P Q ------ P#Q