Theory of mind, logical form and eliminativism

Philosophical Psychology 13 (4):465-490 (2000)
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Abstract

I argue for a cognitive architecture in which folk psychology is supported by an interface of a ToM module and the language faculty, the latter providing the former with interpreted LF structures which form the content representations of ToM states. I show that LF structures satisfy a range of key features asked of contents. I confront this account of ToM with eliminativism and diagnose and combat the thought that "success" and innateness are inconsistent with the falsity of folk psychology. I show that, while my ensemble account of ToM and language refutes the culturalist presuppositions that tend to underlie eliminativist arguments, the falsity of folk psychology is consistent with the account.

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Citations of this work

Nativism: In defense of a biological understanding.John Collins - 2005 - Philosophical Psychology 18 (2):157-177.
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References found in this work

The Language of Thought.Jerry Fodor - 1975 - Harvard University Press.
Vision.David Marr - 1982 - W. H. Freeman.
The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture.Jerome H. Barkow, Leda Cosmides & John Tooby - 1992 - Oxford University Press. Edited by Jerome H. Barkow, Leda Cosmides & John Tooby.

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