In Critical Condition: Polemical Essays on Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Mind

Fodor J.A.

In this book Jerry Fodor contrasts his views about the mind with those of a number of well-known philosophers and cognitive scientists, including John McDowell, Christopher Peacocke, Paul Churchland, Daniel Dennett, Paul Smolensky, and Richard Dawkins. Several of these essays are published here for the first time. The rest originated as book reviews in the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, or in journals of philosophy or psychology. The topics examined include cognitive architecture, the nature of concepts, and the status of Darwinism in psychology. Fodor constructs a version of the Representational Theory of Mind that blends Intentional Realism, Computational Reductionism, Nativism, and Semantic Atomism.

---

Table of contents :
Cover + Back……Page 1
Contents……Page 3
Preface……Page 4
1 Review of John McDowell ‘s Mind and World……Page 6
2 Special Sciences: Still Autonomous after All TheseYears (A Reply to Jaegwon Kim ‘s “MultipleRealization and the Metaphysics of Reduction “)……Page 12
PART II – Concepts……Page 28
3 Review of Christopher Peacocke’s A Study of Concepts……Page 29
4 There Are No Recognitional Concepts- Not EvenRED……Page 37
5 There Are No RecognitionaCl oncept-s Not EvenRED, Part 2: The Plot Thickens……Page 50
6 Do We Think in Mentalese ? Remarks on SomeArguments of Peter Carruthers……Page 64
7 Review of A. W. Moore’s Points of View……Page 76
PART III – Cognitive Architecture……Page 82
8 Review of Paul Churchland’s s TheE ngineo f Reaso,nThe Seat of the Soul……Page 83
9 Connectionism and the Problem of Systematicity :Why Smolensky’s Solution Doesn’t Work……Page 90
10 Connectionism and the Problemo f Systematicity(Continued): Why Smolensky’s Sqlution Still Doesn’tWork……Page 111
11 There and Back Again: A Reviewo f AnnetteKarmilof-fS mithsBeyond Modularity……Page 124
12 Review of Jeff Elman et al., Rethinking Innateness……Page 140
13 Review of Steven Mithen’s The Prehistory of the Mind……Page 149
PART IV – Philosophical Darwinism……Page 157
14 Review of Richard Dawkins ‘s Climbing MountImprobable……Page 158
15 Deconstructing Dennet’st Darwin……Page 165
16 Is Science Biologically Possible? Comments on SomeArguments of Patricia Church land and of AlvinPlantinga……Page 182
17 Review of Steven Pinker’s How the Mind Works andHenry Plotkin ‘s Evolution in Mind……Page 196
References……Page 208
Index……Page 210