creators_name: Aydede, Murat
type: preprint
datestamp: 1998-07-14
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:51
metadata_visibility: show
title: Syntax, content and functionalism: What is wrong with the syntactic theory of mind
ispublished: unpub
subjects: cog-psy
subjects: comp-sci-art-intel
subjects: phil-lang
subjects: phil-mind
full_text_status: public
keywords: Thinking, naturalism, functionalism, syntax, individutation of Mentalese symbols.
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.
date: 1996
date_type: published
refereed: FALSE
citation:   Aydede, Murat  (1996) Syntax, content and functionalism: What is wrong with the syntactic theory of mind.  [Preprint]    (Unpublished)  
document_url: http://cogprints.org/352/1/STM.v1.html