Peter Slezak: "Cartesian 'Ideas' and the First (C17th) Cognitive Revolution"
When : Tue 6 Oct 20091006/20091007 Where : 19.1003, 5:30 pm Abstract Jerry Fodor (2003) sees Hume's Treatise as the foundational document of cognitive science, though he concedes that "Descartes got there first." However, Hume's "Cartesianism" is an ambiguous inheritance since Hume's representational account (and Fodor's) is closer to Malebranche's version than Descartes' own. Descartes shared the 'pragmatism' and 'direct realism' of Arnauld and later Reid - the doctrine that Fodor sees as "the defining catastrophe" in recent philosophy of mind. Since Putnam (1999) and others defend this Arnauld-Reid view today, there has been less progress since the 17th Century than Fodor suggests. I defend Descartes' conception of representation against misunderstandings that illuminate issues still at the forefront of debate in cognitive science today. For example, despite the wide currency of Dennett's term, Descartes was not guilty of the 'Cartesian Theater' fallacy and, indeed, in his Dioptrics explicitly argued against a conception of representation that would require the notorious homunculus - in the Malebranchean Theater. With best wishes, Richard Dr. Richard Menary Senior Lecturer in Philosophy Philosophy Programme Convenor Philosophy Research Node Convenor The University of Wollongong Research Seminar <http://phil-gong.blogspot.com/> University <http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/selpl/philosophy/UOW025977.html> Webpage Google Webpage <http://sites.google.com/site/richardmenary> Phil <http://philpapers.org/profile/3332> Papers Profile Books: Cognitive Integration Available from: Palgrave <http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=275285> Macmillan and Amazon <http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Integration-Mind-Cognition-Unbounded/dp/140 398977X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212105196&sr=8-1> The Philosophy of Cognition from: Acumen <http://www.acumenpublishing.co.uk/results.asp?sf1=author&st1=Richard%20Mena ry&TAG=&CID=&SORT=sort_title> Radical Enactivism (ed.) Amazon <http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Enactivism-Intentionality-Phenomenology-Consc iousness/dp/9027241511/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212105514&sr=1-1>
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