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1. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 35 > Issue: 1
David Rey

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2. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 35 > Issue: 1
Fred Adams

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Jerry Fodor’s arguments for a language of thought (LOT) are largely theoretical. Is there any empirical evidence that supports the existence of LOT? There is. Research on Global Aphasia supports the existence of LOT. In this paper, I discuss this evidence and why it supports Fodor’s theory that there is a language of thought.
3. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 35 > Issue: 1
Kenneth Aizawa

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This paper aims to clarify certain features of the systematicity arguments by a review of some of the largely underexamined background in Chomsky’s and Fodor’s early work on transformational grammar.
4. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 35 > Issue: 1
Louise Antony

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Jerry Fodor has argued that concept acquisition cannot be a psychological or “rational-causal” process, but can only be a “brute-causal” process of acquisition. This position generates the “doorknob → DOORKNOB” problem: why are concepts typically acquired on the basis of experience with items in their extensions? I argue that Fodor’s taxonomy of causal processes needs supplementation, and characterize a third type: what I call “intelligible-causal processes.” Armed with this new category I present what I regard as a better response than Fodor’s to the doorknob → DOORKNOB problem.
5. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 35 > Issue: 1
José Luis Bermúdez, Arnon Cahen

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This paper assesses Fodor’s well-known argument from multiple realizability to nonreductive physicalism. Recent work has brought out that the empirical case for cross-species multiple realizability is weak at best and so we consider whether the argument can be rebooted using a “thin” notion of intraspecies multiple realizability, taking individual neural firing patterns to be the realizers of mental events. We agree that there are no prospects for reducing mental events to individual neural firing patterns. But there are more plausible candidates for the neural realizers of mental events out there, namely, global neural properties such as the average firing rates of neural populations, or the local field potential. The problem for Fodor’s argument is that those global neural properties point towards reductive versions of physicalism.
6. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 35 > Issue: 1
Una Stojnić, Ernie Lepore

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In this paper, we consider a range of puzzles for demonstratives in the language of thought we had raised in our last philosophical conversation we had with Jerry Fodor. We argue against the Kaplan-inspired indexing solution Fodor proposed to us, but offer a Fodor-friendly account of the demonstratives in the language of thought in its stead, building on our account of demonstrative pronouns in English.

articles

7. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 35 > Issue: 1
Víctor M. Verdejo

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According to a widespread, broadly Humean consensus, desires and other conative attitudes seem as such to be free from any normative constraints of rationality. However, rational subjects are also required to be attitude-coherent in ways that prima facie hold sway for desire. I here examine the plausibility of this idea by proposing several principles for coherent desire. These principles parallel principles for coherent belief and can be used to make a case for a kind of purely conative normativity. I consider several objections to a principle for consistent desiring and reply to them. I conclude that, if attitude-coherence is a mark of rationality, the broadly Humean consensus must be rejected.
8. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 35 > Issue: 1
Stephen J. Schmidt

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Parfit’s Repugnant Conclusion argues, against intuition, that for any world A, another world Z with higher population and minimal well-being is better. That intuition is incorrect because the argument has not considered resources that support well-being. Z must have many more resources supporting well-being than A does. Z is repugnant because it spreads those resources among too many people; another world with Z’s resources and fewer people, if available, would be far superior. But Z is still better than A; it is worth accepting its very large population to get the resources needed to support their well-being.

book reviews

9. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 35 > Issue: 1
Jesús Zamora Bonilla

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10. Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science: Volume > 35 > Issue: 1

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