Related Theories
Resemblance theories, as explained by Crane, is “to say that resemblance is sufficient for representation is to say this: if X resembles Y, then X represents Y. The first thing that should strike us is that ‘resembles’ is somewhat vague. For, in one sense, almost everything resembles everything else. This is the sense in which resembling something is just having some feature in common with that thing. So, in this sense, not only do I resemble my father and my mother, because I look like them, but I also resemble my desk – my desk and I are both physical objects – and the number 3 – the number 3 and I are both objects of one kind of another. But I am not a representation of any of these things.”
Teleosemantics, also known as biosemantics, is used to refer to the class of theories of mental content that use a teleological notion of function. Teleosemantics is best understood as a general strategy for underwriting the normative nature of content, rather than any particular theory. What all teleological theories have in common is the idea that semantic norms are ultimately derivable from functional norms
The theory of asymmetric dependence, from Fodor, who says that his theory “distinguishes merely informational relations on the basis of their higher-order relations to each other: informational relations depend upon representational relations, but not vice versa. He gives an example of this theory when he says, “if tokens of a mental state type are reliably caused by horses, cows-on-dark-nights, zebras-in-the-mist and Great Danes, then they carry information about horses, etc. If however, such tokens are caused by cows-on-dark-nights, etc. because they are caused by horses, but not vice versa, then they represent horses (or property horse).
Read more about this topic: The Naturalization Of Intentionality
Famous quotes containing the words related and/or theories:
“The content of a thought depends on its external relations; on the way that the thought is related to the world, not on the way that it is related to other thoughts.”
—Jerry Alan Fodor (b. 1935)
“The real trouble about women is that they must always go on trying to adapt themselves to men’s theories of women, as they always have done. When a woman is thoroughly herself, she is being what her type of man wants her to be. When a woman is hysterical it’s because she doesn’t quite know what to be, which pattern to follow, which man’s picture of woman to live up to.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)