Skip to main content
Log in

Form, interpretation, and the uniqueness of content: Response to Morris

  • Critical Exchange
  • Published:
Minds and Machines Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In response to Michael Morris, I attempt to refute the crucial second premise of the argument, which states that the formality condition cannot be satisfied “non-stipulatively” in computational systems. I defend the view of representation urged in Meaning and Mental Representation against the charge that it makes content stipulative and therefore irrelevant to the explanation of cognition. Some other reservations are expressed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • ChurchlandPaul (1979), Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Mind, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • CumminsR. (1983), The Nature of Psychological Explanation, Cambridge, MA: MIT/Bradford Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • CumminsR. (1989), Meaning and Mental Representation, Cambridge, MA: MIT/Bradford Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • FodorJ. (1980), ‘Methodological Solipsism Considered as a Research Strategy in Cognitive Psychology’, The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3, pp. 63–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • FodorJ. (1989), Psychosemantics: The Problem of Meaning in the Philosophy of Mind, Cambridge, MA, MIT/Bradford Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • HaugelandJ. (1985), Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea, Cambridge, MA: MIT/Bradford Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • MillikanR. (1984), Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories, Cambridge, MA: MIT/ Bradford Books.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cummins, R. Form, interpretation, and the uniqueness of content: Response to Morris. Minds and Machines 1, 31–42 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00360577

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00360577

Key words

Navigation