Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

Personal Identity

Language of Thought

(Text as at 14/02/2021 12:51:50)

(For earlier versions of this Note, see the table at the end)

Plug Note¹

• Jerry Fodor’s Language of Thought (LOT) hypothesis features heavily in debates in the philosophy of mind – particularly in the debates between connectionists and computationalists.
• See "Aydede (Murat) - The Language of Thought Hypothesis" for an overview.
• My interest in it within the sphere of personal identity arises because of the alleged essentiality of language for personhood (see "Dennett (Daniel) - Conditions of Personhood"). As such, all non-human animals² are ruled out – because even if certain Great Apes can be taught sign-language, this is not natural to them in the way language is to human beings, and it implies that an individual can be taught to be a person³.
• It is also often alleged (eg. by Donald Davidson) that animals cannot even think in the absence of language, because thinking requires concepts⁴, and concepts are only expressed in language.
• These (to me) unwanted conclusions might disappear if all animals whose minds appear to have intensional states should have a language of thought.
• I don’t know whether Fodor cares about animals in this context, or whether his theory was designed strictly with human beings⁵ in mind.
• I like the idea that a LOT – which initially only helps an individual – might explain how spoken language arose amongst human beings – given that a spoken language requires a pair of speakers before it becomes useful (even if grunts and other vocalisations don’t). If a language of thought spilled out into vocalisation, even though individual vocalisations might be initially mutually-unintelligible, a conventional speech (constrained only by universal grammar) might naturally arise with the co-operative behaviour germane to social animals.
• For a Page of Links⁶ to this Note, Click here.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read⁷, include the following:-
  • Aeon:
    1. "Evans (Vyvyan) - Video - Real talk", 2014, External Link
    2. "Everett (Daniel) - Chomsky, Wolfe and me", 2017, No Abstract, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Garcia-Amaya (Lorenzo) - Video - Why do we, like, hesitate when we, um, speak?", 2021, External Link
    4. "Huenemann (Charlie) - Who needs a perfect language? It’s already perfectly imperfect", 2017, External Link, Internal PDF Link
  • General:
    1. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - When Do Persons Begin and End?", 2005, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Dennett (Daniel) - Conditions of Personhood", 1997, Write-Up Note⁸, Annotations
    3. "Fodor (Jerry) - Psychosemantics", 1987, Footnote₉
    4. "Fodor (Jerry) - Why There Still Has to be a Language of Thought", 1987, No Abstract
    5. "Pinker (Steven) - The Language Instinct - How the Mind Creates Language", 1994
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Aydede (Murat) - The Language of Thought Hypothesis", 2010, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Bickerton (Derek) - How Protolanguage Became Language", 2009, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Camp (Elisabeth) - A language of baboon thought?", 2009, Internal PDF Link
    4. "Cangelosi (Angelo) & Parisi (Domenico), Eds. - Simulating the Evolution of Language", 2002, No Abstract, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Carruthers (Peter) & Boucher (Jill) - Language and Thought", 1998
    6. "Chomsky (Noam) - Biolinguistic Explorations: Design, Development, Evolution", 2007, Internal PDF Link
    7. "Clark (Andy) - Language of Thought", 1994, No Abstract
    8. "Davidson (Donald) - The Emergence of Thought", 1999, Internal PDF Link
    9. "Davies (Martin) - Concepts, Connectionism, and the Language of Thought", 1991, Internal PDF Link
    10. "Davies (Martin) - Language, thought, and the language of thought: Aunty's own argument revisited", 1998, Internal PDF Link
    11. "DeWitt (Richard) - Vagueness, Semantics, and the Language of Thought (Review of Jerry Fodor, George Miller, & D. Terence Langendoen - Language of Thought )", 1993, Internal PDF Link
    12. "Fodor (Jerry) - The Language of Thought", 1976
    13. "Hills (David) - Mental Representations and Language of Thought", 1981, No Abstract
    14. "Horgan (Terence) & Tienson (John) - Why There Still Has to be a Language of Thought, and What That Means", 1996, No Abstract
    15. "Laurence (Stephen) & Margolis (Eric) - Regress Arguments Against the Language of Thought", 1997, Internal PDF Link
    16. "Lycan (William) - The 'Language of Thought' Hypothesis - Introduction", 1999, No Abstract
    17. "Maloney (J. Christopher) - Language of Thought", 1994, No Abstract
    18. "Pinker (Steven) - Words and Rules - The Ingredients of Language", 1999
    19. "Pollock (John L.) - The Language of Thought", 1989
    20. "Pollock (John L.) - Understanding the Language of Thought", 1990, Internal PDF Link
    21. "Rey (Georges) - Sensations in a Language of Thought", 1991, No Abstract, Internal PDF Link
    22. "Rowlands (Mark) - Connectionism and the Language of Thought", 1994, Internal PDF Link
    23. "Smolensky (Paul) - Connectionism, Constituency and the Language of Thought", 1995, No Abstract
    24. "Swinburne (Richard) - Language of Thought, Connectionism, and Folk Psychology", 1997, No Abstract
    25. "Viger (Christopher) - Learning to Think: A Response to the Language of Thought Argument for Innateness", 2005, Internal PDF Link
    26. "Wray (Alison) - Holistic Utterances in Protolanguage: The Link from Primates to Humans", 2009, Internal PDF Link
• A few connections to be followed up:-
  1. Baker - The Human Animal: Big-Tent Metaphysics¹⁰
  2. Brandom - Toward a Normative Pragmatics (Introduction)¹¹
  3. Daniel Dennett – Conditions of Personhood¹²
  4. Implicit knowledge and language learning¹³
  5. Jen_071022 (Dennett)¹⁴
  6. Jen_080204 (Brandom, Chisholm, Baillie)¹⁵
• This is mostly a place-holder¹⁶.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 9:

• Especially "Fodor (Jerry) - Why There Still Has to be a Language of Thought".

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Table of the Previous 3 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
28/09/2020 13:06:14	2932	Language of Thought
06/03/2018 21:21:36	4085	Language of Thought
04/07/2014 22:46:34	1705	Language of Thought

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
14/02/2021 12:51:50	Language of Thought	Person

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Summary of Note Links from this Page

Animals	Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Baker - The Human Animal: Big-Tent Metaphysics	Brandom - Toward a Normative Pragmatics (Introduction)	Concepts
Daniel Dennett – Conditions of Personhood	Human Beings	Implicit knowledge and language learning	Jen_071022 (Dennett)	Jen_080204 (Brandom, Chisholm, Baillie)
Note Links Explanation	Person	Plug Note Apologia	Works Read - Explanation

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Summary of Note Links to this Page

Aeon Papers, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Dennett - True Believers, 2

PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?), 2, 3, 4

Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	When Do Persons Begin and End?	Paper		Yes
Dennett (Daniel)	True Believers: The Intentional Strategy and Why it Works	Paper	2	Yes
Evans (Vyvyan)	Video - Real talk	Paper		Yes
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: 2019+	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Paper	2, 3, 4	Yes

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Aydede (Murat)	The Language of Thought Hypothesis	Paper - Cited	Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2010	5%
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	When Do Persons Begin and End?	Paper - Cited	Distinguished Faculty Lecture, December 5, 2005	Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	When Do Persons Begin and End?	Paper - Referencing	Distinguished Faculty Lecture, December 5, 2005	Yes
Bermudez (Jose Luis)	Thinking Without Words	Book - By Subtopic	Bermudez (Jose Luis) - Thinking Without Words	6%
Bickerton (Derek)	How Protolanguage Became Language	Paper - By Subtopic	Knight (Etc, Eds) - The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form, 24 November 2009	No
Burling (Robbins)	The Talking Ape: How Language Evolved	Book - By Subtopic	Burling (Robbins) - The Talking Ape: How Language Evolved	0%
Camp (Elisabeth)	A language of baboon thought?	Paper - By Subtopic	Robert W. Lurz (ed.), The Philosophy of Animal Minds. Cambridge University Press (2009), Chapter 6	8%
Cangelosi (Angelo) & Parisi (Domenico), Eds.	Simulating the Evolution of Language	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Cangelosi (Angelo) & Parisi (Domenico), Eds. - Simulating the Evolution of Language	1%
Cangelosi (Angelo) & Parisi (Domenico), Eds.	Simulating the Evolution of Language	Paper - By Subtopic	Cangelosi (Angelo) & Parisi (Domenico), Eds. - Simulating the Evolution of Language, 2002	2%
Carruthers (Peter) & Boucher (Jill)	Language and Thought	Book - Cited	Carruthers (Peter) & Boucher (Jill) - Language and Thought	No
Chomsky (Noam)	Biolinguistic Explorations: Design, Development, Evolution	Paper - By Subtopic	International Journal of Philosophical Studies, Volume 15, Issue 1 March 2007 , pages 1 - 21	No
Clark (Andy)	Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic	Guttenplan - A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind	No
Davies (Martin)	Concepts, Connectionism, and the Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic	In W. Ramsey, S. Stich and D. Rumelhart (eds), Philosophy and Connectionist Theory (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1991), 229-257	No
Davies (Martin)	Language, thought, and the language of thought: Aunty's own argument revisited	Paper - By Subtopic	Carruthers & Boucher - Language and Thought, 1998	No
Dennett (Daniel)	Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	43%
Dennett (Daniel)	Conditions of Personhood	Paper - Cited	Dennett - Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology, Chapter 14	Yes
DeWitt (Richard)	Vagueness, Semantics, and the Language of Thought (Review of Jerry Fodor, George Miller, & D. Terence Langendoen - Language of Thought )	Paper - By Subtopic	Psyche, 1(1), December 1993	No
Evans (Vyvyan)	Video - Real talk	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 04 December 2014	Yes
Evans (Vyvyan)	Video - Real talk	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 04 December 2014	Yes
Everett (Daniel)	Chomsky, Wolfe and me	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 10 January, 2017	Yes
Fodor (Jerry)	Psychosemantics	Book - Cited	Fodor (Jerry) - Psychosemantics	Yes
Fodor (Jerry)	The Language of Thought	Book - By Subtopic	Fodor (Jerry) - The Language of Thought	2%
Fodor (Jerry)	The Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic	Fodor - The Language of Thought	4%
Fodor (Jerry)	Why There Still Has to be a Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic	Fodor - Psychosemantics, Appendix	Yes
Garcia-Amaya (Lorenzo)	Video - Why do we, like, hesitate when we, um, speak?	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 10 May 2021	Yes
Guttenplan (Samuel), Ed.	A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Guttenplan (Samuel), Ed. - A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind	0%
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: 2019+	Paper - Referencing	Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) - Aeon	Yes
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: A-B (& General)	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	100%
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: C-F	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	51%
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: G-K	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	31%
Horgan (Terence) & Tienson (John)	Connectionism and the Philosophy of Psychology	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Horgan (Terence) & Tienson (John) - Connectionism and the Philosophy of Psychology	23%
Horgan (Terence) & Tienson (John)	Why There Still Has to be a Language of Thought, and What That Means	Paper - By Subtopic	Horgan & Tienson - Connectionism and the Philosophy of Psychology, 1996, Chapter 5	29%
Huenemann (Charlie)	Who needs a perfect language? It’s already perfectly imperfect	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 30 May, 2017	Yes
Jackendoff (Ray)	What is a Concept, That a Person May Grasp It?	Paper - By Subtopic	Margolis & Laurence - Concepts - Core Readings	No
Kaye (Larry)	The Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic	Field Guide to the Philosophy of Mind	No
Kaye (Larry)	The Language of Thought - Annotated Bibliography	Paper - By Subtopic	Field Guide to the Philosophy of Mind	No
Laurence (Stephen) & Margolis (Eric)	Regress Arguments Against the Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic	Analysis 57.1, Jan 1997, p60, 7p	No
Lieberman (Philip)	Eve Spoke - Human Language and Human Evolution	Book - By Subtopic	Lieberman (Philip) - Eve Spoke - Human Language and Human Evolution	No
Lurz (Robert), Ed.	The Philosophy of Animal Minds	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Lurz (Robert), Ed. - The Philosophy of Animal Minds	4%
Lycan (William)	Mind and Cognition - An Anthology	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Lycan (William) - Mind and Cognition - An Anthology	1%
Lycan (William)	The 'Language of Thought' Hypothesis - Introduction	Paper - By Subtopic	Lycan - Mind and Cognition - An Anthology, 1999	No
MacDonald (Cynthia) & MacDonald (Graham), Eds.	Connectionism: Debates in Psychological Explanation - Vol. 2	Book - By Subtopic	MacDonald (Cynthia) & MacDonald (Graham), Eds. - Connectionism: Debates in Psychological Explanation - Vol. 2	4%
Margolis (Eric) & Laurence (Stephen), Eds.	Concepts - Core Readings	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Margolis (Eric) & Laurence (Stephen), Eds. - Concepts - Core Readings	No
Noe (Alva)	Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Noe (Alva) - Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness	23%
Noe (Alva)	Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness	Paper - By Subtopic	Noe (Alva) - Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness	34%
Pollock (John L.)	How to Build a Person: A Prolegomenon	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Pollock (John L.) - How to Build a Person: A Prolegomenon	6%
Pollock (John L.)	Interest-Driven Reasoning	Paper - By Subtopic	Synthese, Vol. 74, No. 3, Internalism (Mar., 1988), pp. 369-390	No
Pollock (John L.)	The Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic	Pollock - How to Build a Person, Chapter 5	No
Pollock (John L.)	Understanding the Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Studies, Vol. 58, No. 1/2, Symposium on Thought and Reference (Jan. - Feb., 1990), pp. 95-120	No
Rey (Georges)	Sensations in a Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Issues, Vol. 1, Consciousness, 1991, pp. 73-112	No
Rowlands (Mark)	Connectionism and the Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic	British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 45, No. 2, Jun., 1994, pp. 485-503	17%
Searle (John)	The Rediscovery of the Mind	Book - By Subtopic	Searle (John) - The Rediscovery of the Mind	23%
Smolensky (Paul)	Connectionism, Constituency and the Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic	MacDonald (Cynthia) & MacDonald (Graham) - Connectionism: Debates in Psychological Explanation - Vol. 2	No
Todman (Theo)	Poverty of Stimulus Arguments	Paper - By Subtopic		25%
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Language of Thought	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Viger (Christopher)	Learning to Think: A Response to the Language of Thought Argument for Innateness	Paper - By Subtopic	Mind and Language, Volume 20, Number 3, June 2005, pp. 313-325(13)	No
Wray (Alison)	Holistic Utterances in Protolanguage: The Link from Primates to Humans	Paper - By Subtopic	Knight (Etc, Eds) - The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form	No

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