Meaning and mental representation

Kathleen Emmett

pp. 77-84

in: Herbert Otto, James Tuedio (eds), Perspectives on mind, Berlin, Springer, 1988

Abstract

Husserl and Fodor both accept a representational theory of mind (RTM). Both individuate mental states by their contents, which are provided by mental representations or noematic Sinn. Both adhere to methodological solipsism; mental states are theoretically isolated from environmental and social causes and effects. Their principled blindness to mind-world causal connections ally Husserl and Fodor in a common antipathy to "naturalistic psychology" which would insist that mental states cannot be identified without considering their causes and the contexts in which they occur.

Cited authors

Husserl Edmund