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Midterm
Study Questions
(1) In his Origins of Analytic Philosophy, Michael Dummett makes the following claim: "What distinguishes analytical philosophy, in its diverse manifestations, from other schools is the belief, first, that a philosophical account of thought can be attained through a philosophical account of language, and secondly, that a comprehensive account can only be so attained." Evaluate the preceding remarks regarding how we attain an account of thought. (2) Explain Dennett's three stances. Is the design stance useful for just the theory of mind, just the theory of knowledge, both the theory of mind and the theory of knowledge, or neither the theory of mind nor the theory of knowledge? Defend your position. Be sure to make reference to the paper by Cummins and Pollack and to the paper by Haugeland. (3) To what extent, if any, might some of the ideas of Quine and Sellars contribute to naturalizing epistemology? Defend your position. (4) Why is it important to understand the nature of representation? Do you think representations are essentially linguistic, or can they be non-linguistic? Do we need both linguistic and non-linguistic representations? If so, why? If not, why not? Discuss with reference to the readings by Patricia Churchland and Jerry Fodor and Zenon Pylyshyn. |