@unpublished{cogprints352, title = {Syntax, content and functionalism: What is wrong with the syntactic theory of mind}, author = {Murat Aydede}, year = {1996}, keywords = {Thinking, naturalism, functionalism, syntax, individutation of Mentalese symbols.}, url = {http://cogprints.org/352/}, abstract = {I argue that Stich's Syntactic Theory of Mind (STM) and a naturalistic narrow content functionalism run on a Language of Though story have the same exact structure. I elaborate on the argument that narrow content functionalism is either irremediably holistic in a rather destructive sense, or else doesn't have the resources for individuating contents interpersonally. So I show that, contrary to his own advertisement, Stich's STM has exactly the same problems (like holism, vagueness, observer-relativity, etc.) that he claims plague content-based psychologies. So STM can't be any better than the Representational Theory of Mind (RTM) in its prospects for forming the foundations of a scientifically respectable psychology, whether or not RTM has the problems that Stich claims it does.} }