The Generality Constraint and the Structure of Thought.

According to the Generality Constraint, mental states with conceptual content must be capable of recombining in certain systematic ways. Drawing on empirical evidence from cognitive science, I argue that so-called analogue magnitude states violate this recombinability condition and thus have nonconc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Mind (0026-4423) Vol. 121; no. 483; pp. 563 - 601
Autor principal: BECK, JACOB
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Oxford University Press / USA Jul2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:According to the Generality Constraint, mental states with conceptual content must be capable of recombining in certain systematic ways. Drawing on empirical evidence from cognitive science, I argue that so-called analogue magnitude states violate this recombinability condition and thus have nonconceptual content. I further argue that this result has two significant consequences: it demonstrates that nonconceptual content seeps beyond perception and infiltrates cognition; and it shows that whether mental states have nonconceptual content is largely an empirical matter determined by the structure of the neural representations underlying them.