Teleosemantics: new philosophical essays

241 Pages·2009·1.217 MB·English

by  Macdonald, Graham F.;Papineau, David

TELEOSEMANTICS
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Teleosemantics
New Philosophical Essays
Editedby
GRAHAM MACDONALD
AND DAVID PAPINEAU
CLARENDONPRESS·OXFORD
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Contents
ListofContributors vii
Introduction:ProspectsandProblemsforTeleosemantics 1
GrahamMacdonaldandDavidPapineau
1. Language,Modularity,andEvolution 23
KimSterelny
2. MentalRepresentation,Naturalism,andTeleosemantics 42
PeterGodfrey-Smith
3. Representation,Teleosemantics,andtheProblemof
Self-Knowledge 69
FredDretske
4. TheEpistemologicalObjectiontoOpaqueTeleological
TheoriesofContent 85
FrankJackson
5. UselessContent 100
RuthMillikan
6. OnThinkingofKinds:ANeuroscientificPerspective 115
DanRyder
7. TeleosemanticsandtheConsumer 146
MohanMatthen
8. ContentforCognitiveScience 167
KarenNeander
9. RepresentationandUnexploitedContent 195
RobertCummins,JimBlackmon,DavidByrd,
AlexaLee,andMartinRoth
10. FearingFluffy:TheContentofanEmotionalAppraisal 208
CarolynPrice
Index 229
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List of Contributors
JimBlackmonisadoctoralstudentinthePhilosophyDepartmentattheUniver-
sityofCaliforniaatDavis.
DavidByrdisaLecturerinthePhilosophyDepartmentatSantaClaraUniversity.
RobertCumminsisProfessorinthePhilosophyDepartmentattheUniversityof
Illinois-Urbana/Champaign.
FredDretskeisEmeritusProfessorofPhilosophyatStanfordUniversity.
PeterGodfrey-SmithisProfessorinthePhilosophyDepartmentatHarvardUni-
versity.
Frank Jackson is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Re-
searchSchoolofSocialSciences,theAustralianNationalUniversity.
AlexaLeeisadoctoralstudentinthePhilosophyDepartmentattheUniversityof
CaliforniaatDavis.
Graham Macdonald is Professor of Philosophy in the School of Philosophy
and Religious Studies, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Distin-
guished International Fellow, Institute of Cognition and Culture, Queen’s
University,Belfast.
MohanMatthenisCanadaResearchChairinPhilosophy,Perception,andCom-
municationattheUniversityofToronto.
RuthMillikanisBoardofTrusteesDistinguishedProfessorEmeritainthePhilo-
sophyDepartmentattheUniversityofConnecticut.
KarenNeanderisProfessorofPhilosophyattheUniversityofCaliforniaatDavis.
DavidPapineauisProfessorofPhilosophyofScienceatKing’sCollegeLondon.
CarolynPriceisLecturerinPhilosophyattheOpenUniversity.
MartinRothisanAssistantProfessorofPhilosophyatKnoxCollege,Illinois.
DanRyderisanAssistantProfessorintheDepartmentofPhilosophyattheUni-
versityofConnecticut.
Kim Sterelny is a Professor in the Philosophy Department at the Australian
NationalUniversityandattheVictoriaUniversityofWellington,NewZealand.
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Introduction: Prospects and Problems
for Teleosemantics
Graham Macdonald and David Papineau
1. NATURALISM
Theprogrammethathascometobeknownas‘teleosemantics’aimstooffera
naturalisticaccountofmentalrepresentation.Thatis,itaimstoshowhow
therepresentationalpowersofmentalstatesfitinto theworldrevealedby
the natural sciences.It is distinguishedfrom othernaturalisticapproaches
to mental representation by its reliance on a notion of function that plays
aprominentroleinbiology:thusitexplainsthetruthconditionsofbelief-
like states, say, orthe satisfaction conditionsof desire-likestates,in terms
ofthebiologicalfunctionsofthesestates.Inthenextsectionweshallgive
fullerdetailsofthewaysinwhichteleosemanticistshaveusedthenotionof
functiontoexplainrepresentation.Butfirstitisworthconsideringexactly
howteleosemanticsmightcontributetothegeneralprojectofnaturalization.
Thenotionof‘naturalism’ismuchcontested.Therequirementthatwe
should only credit those facts that are recognized by the ‘natural sciences’
haslittlebiteintheabsenceofsomesubstantialspecificationofwhatquali-
fiesadomainofinvestigationasa‘naturalscience’.Formanycontemporary
philosophers,therealsignificanceofnaturalismliesintheneedtoexplain
what role, if any, mental and other prima facie non-physical phenomena
play in the physical world. The rationale for this emphasisis that physics,
unlikeothernaturalsciences,seemstobecausallycomplete:physicaleffects
alwayshavephysicalcauses,iftheyhavecausesatall.Thismeansthatany
factsthatarecapableofproducingphysicaleffectscannotbeontologically
supplementary to the physical realm; otherwise there would be an absurd
proliferationof causal overdetermination.For example,since mental facts
oftenhavephysicaleffectsintheformofbodilymovementsandconsequent