Indeterminacy, Uselessness, and Abstraction. Problems Posed by Teleological Theories of Mental Content

Ideas Y Valores 62 (152):35-52 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

RESUMEN La teleosemántica es el intento de naturalizar el contenido mental mediante el recurso al concepto de función biológica. En el presente artículo se argumenta que la teleosemántica carece de los recursos necesarios para hacer frente a tres problemas: la indeterminación del contenido, el carácter abstracto de este y la inutilidad biológica de algunas de las representaciones que pueden albergar organismos como los humanos. ABSTRACT Teleosemantics is the attempt to naturalize mental content by resorting to the concept of biological function. The article argues that teleosemantics lacks the necessary resources to solve three problems: the indeterminacy of content, its abstract nature, and the biological uselessness of some of the representations of certain organisms such as human beings

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,597

External links

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

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-11-18

Downloads
57 (#378,900)

6 months
9 (#500,261)

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

Teleosemantics and indeterminacy.David Papineau - 1998 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 76 (1):1-14.
Swampman meets swampcow.Karen Neander - 1996 - Mind and Language 11 (1):118-29.
. Content for Cognitive Science.Karen Neander - 2006 - In Graham Macdonald & David Papineau (eds.), Teleosemantics: New Philo-sophical Essays. New York: Oxford: Clarendon Press.

View all 6 references / Add more references