Mental content and evolutionary explanation

Biology and Philosophy 7 (1):1-12 (1992)
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Abstract

Cognitive ethology is the comparative study of animal cognition from an evolutionary perspective. As a sub-discipline of biology it shares interest in questions concerning the immediate causes and development of behavior. As a part of ethology it is also concerned with questions about the function and evolution of behavior. I examine some recent work in cognitive ethology, and I argue that the notions of mental content and representation are important to enable researchers to answer questions and state generalizations about the function and volution of behavior.

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Colin Allen
University of California, Santa Barbara

References found in this work

Vision.David Marr - 1982 - W. H. Freeman.
The Language of Thought.Jerry Fodor - 1975 - Harvard University Press.
Individualism and the mental.Tyler Burge - 1979 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 4 (1):73-122.

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