Teleosemantics, selection and novel contents

TY - JOUR

T1 - Teleosemantics, selection and novel contents

AU - Garson, Justin

AU - Papineau, David

PY - 2019/6/1

Y1 - 2019/6/1

N2 - Mainstream teleosemantics is the view that mental representation should be understood in terms of biological functions, which, in turn, should be understood in terms of selection processes. One of the traditional criticisms of teleosemantics is the problem of novel contents: how can teleosemantics explain our ability to represent properties that are evolutionarily novel? In response, some have argued that by generalizing the notion of a selection process to include phenomena such as operant conditioning, and the neural selection that underlies it, we can resolve this problem. Here, we do four things: we develop this suggestion in a rigorous way through a simple example, we draw on recent neurobiological research to support its empirical plausibility, we defend the move from a host of objections in the literature, and we sketch how the picture can be extended to help us think about more complex “conceptual” representations and not just perceptual ones.

AB - Mainstream teleosemantics is the view that mental representation should be understood in terms of biological functions, which, in turn, should be understood in terms of selection processes. One of the traditional criticisms of teleosemantics is the problem of novel contents: how can teleosemantics explain our ability to represent properties that are evolutionarily novel? In response, some have argued that by generalizing the notion of a selection process to include phenomena such as operant conditioning, and the neural selection that underlies it, we can resolve this problem. Here, we do four things: we develop this suggestion in a rigorous way through a simple example, we draw on recent neurobiological research to support its empirical plausibility, we defend the move from a host of objections in the literature, and we sketch how the picture can be extended to help us think about more complex “conceptual” representations and not just perceptual ones.

KW - Biological functions

KW - Neural selection

KW - Novel representations

KW - Selected effects theory

KW - Teleosemantics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85064916051&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10539-019-9689-8

DO - 10.1007/s10539-019-9689-8

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85064916051

SN - 0169-3867

VL - 34

JO - BIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY

JF - BIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY

IS - 3

M1 - 36

ER -