Jerry A. Fodor was born on April 22, 1935, and throughout his 82-year life, he made groundbreaking contributions that left a lasting mark on both philosophy and cognitive science. Working at the intersection of philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and cognitive science, Fodor is best known for his theories of modularity of mind and representational processing models.
His “computational theory of mind”, the idea that mental processes can be modeled in ways similar to computational operations, has become one of the most influential theoretical frameworks in the history of cognitive science. His seminal work, The Modularity of Mind (1983), argued that certain aspects of the mind are innate, domain-specific, and functionally independent, sparking significant debate in both psychology and neuroscience.
In addition, with his book Language of Thought (1975), Fodor proposed that thinking possesses an inherently syntactic structure, a thesis that has profoundly influenced discussions in both philosophy of mind and artificial intelligence.
Though sometimes criticized for his strong arguments and uncompromising positions, Fodor remains an indispensable figure in shaping contemporary theories of mind. We commemorate his life and enduring influence in cognitive science on Tuesday, April 22, with a talk by Dr. Ceyhan Temürcü from Middle East Technical University (METU).
The content of Ceyhan Temürcü’s talk, titled “Intentionality and Mind in Fodor: The Fundamental Assumptions Behind Mentalese”, is as follows:
“Intentionality” is often associated with, or even identified as, “representation.” Just as a word or an image can represent real or imaginary things, intentional mental states are also said to represent real or imaginary entities. This assumption traces back to several major modern philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, Hume, and Thomas Reid, as well as other thinkers of the so-called “Way of Ideas” and is explicitly embraced within classical cognitive science, which conceives of higher-order cognition (“thinking”) as a form of symbolic information processing. Jerry Fodor develops this idea in a compelling way, transforming it into a full-fledged “language of thought” or “mentalese” theory. In this talk, I will aim to outline the core assumptions and lines of reasoning that led Fodor to this conclusion.
Platform: Zoom
Date: Tuesday, April 22
Time: 6:30 PM
Free admission.
Please fill out this form to join the event. The Zoom link will be shared with registered participants by email shortly before the session..
