Cognitive Science and the Problem of Semantic Content

Abstract

By ‘cognitive science’ I mean the branch of cognitive psychology that incorporates the computer model, and that is sometimes known as ‘computational psychology’ and ‘information-processing psychology’ as well. My remarks are directed particularly against the version of cognitive science defended in recent writings by Jerry Fodor. By ‘the problem of semantic content’ I mean roughly the problem of explicating those features of a brain state or process by virtue of which it may properly be said to possess meaning or reference or truth value. Since I am primarily concerned with the account of semantic content implicated in Fodor’s version of cognitive science, I shall summarize that account before attempting to formulate the problem in a more precise manner.