Sententialism and the problem of clutter

Acta Analytica 21 (40):74-84 (2006)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Among the difficulties that sentential theories of belief face, the problem of clutter asserts that treating beliefs as sentences would make it difficult or impossible to literally fit the number of beliefs possessed by ordinary human cognizers into the mind-brain. I argue that concerns about clutter arise from a misunderstanding of how belief states, whether sentences or not, are causally related. Insofar as a weak computer model of the mind treats information states as virtual states, I explain how the ontology of virtual states seriously mitigates the problem of clutter for sententialism.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,219

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The moral belief problem.Neil Sinclair - 2006 - Ratio 19 (2):249–260.
Beliefs and Sentences in the Head.Ken Warmbrōd - 1989 - Synthese 79 (2):201 - 230.
Attitudes as nonentities.Lynne Rudder Baker - 1994 - Philosophical Studies 76 (2-3):175-203.
On the ascription of content.Stephen P. Stich - 1982 - In Andrew Woodfield (ed.), Thought And Object: Essays On Intentionality. New York: Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Are beliefs brain states?Lynne Rudder Baker - 2001 - In Anthonie W. M. Meijers (ed.), Explaining Beliefs: Lynne Rudder Baker and Her Critics. CSLI Publications (Stanford).
The frame problem and theories of belief.Scott Hendricks - 2006 - Philosophical Studies 129 (2):317-33.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
46 (#330,292)

6 months
5 (#544,079)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

A Materialist Theory of the Mind.D. M. Armstrong - 1968 - New York: Routledge. Edited by Ted Honderich.
Thought.Gilbert Harman - 1973 - Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.
Causation.David Lewis - 1973 - Journal of Philosophy 70 (17):556-567.

View all 25 references / Add more references