Psychology Dictionary of Arguments

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Mentalese: The language of thought, also sometimes called mentalese, is a language of which is assumed that it is used for information processing in the brain. It is supposed to differ from the everyday language, which would require a twofold translation. Critics argue that this makes the explanations more complicated, or the brain requires a higher work performance than necessary. The homunculus argument has become known against the language of thought. Jerry Fodor. (1975). The Language of Thought. Harvard University Press. H. PutnamVs Mentalese explains nothing, only shifts the problem. R. SearleVsFodor. R. SearleVs Regress of homunculi (translation agents). Rorty's solution is a hierarchy of dumber homunculi.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Colin McGinn on Mentalese - Dictionary of Arguments

I 223
Mentalese/Brain/Brain state/language of thought/McGinn: Suppose that the brain contains a language, the brain will use it to set up a theory of its own. ((s) as to be able to ever recognize malfunctions, it must be able to compare the desired and actual states.)
Seeing/McGinn: the brain also makes use of an optical theory to interpret the distal importance of a pattern.
>Seeing
.
McGinn: Thesis: so the brain has certainly the necessary reserves, comprehensive representation areas that are not going to be noticed.
>Brain/McGinn.
I 226
Brain/Mentalese/McGinn: the brain is not subject to the same limitations as the conscious reason. E.g. pain: there may be a subsystem for self-monitoring, which prescribes the pain centers to change the fibers when overloaded. Here semantically mediated feedback loops would obviously be highly useful, the more clever, the better. The dimensions of this cleverness do not coincide with the consciousness.
>Consciousness.

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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.

McGinn I
Colin McGinn
Problems in Philosophy. The Limits of Inquiry, Cambridge/MA 1993
German Edition:
Die Grenzen vernünftigen Fragens Stuttgart 1996

McGinn II
C. McGinn
The Mysteriouy Flame. Conscious Minds in a Material World, New York 1999
German Edition:
Wie kommt der Geist in die Materie? München 2001


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