The concept of a symbol and the vacuousness of the symbolic conception of thought

Semiotica 2005 (154 - 1/4):243-264 (2005)
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Abstract

Linguistic expressions must be decrypted if they are to transmit information. Thoughts need not be decrypted if they are to transmit information. Therefore thought-processes do not consist of linguistic expressions: thought is not linguistic. A consequence is that thought is not computational, given that a computation is the operationalization of a function that assigns one expression to some other expression (or sequence of expressions).

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Author's Profile

John-Michael Kuczynski
University of California, Santa Barbara (PhD)

References found in this work

The Rediscovery of the Mind.John Searle - 1992 - MIT Press. Edited by Ned Block & Hilary Putnam.
Naming and Necessity.S. Kripke - 1972 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 45 (4):665-666.
The Language of Thought.J. A. Fodor - 1978 - Critica 10 (28):140-143.
Philosophical grammar.Ludwig Wittgenstein - 1974 - Oxford [Eng.]: Blackwell. Edited by Rush Rhees.

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