donderdag 6 december 2012

Quote #7: Amy Perfors

One implication of this is that Fodor's point is true but trivial. If one understands ‘‘concept’’ to mean ‘‘something that can be represented by the brain’’, then all of our concepts are innate – they exist in the latent hypothesis space of possible things the brain can represent (a space implicitly defined by the structure of the brain). In the more interesting sense, where ‘‘having concept’’ means that the concept is available at the cognitive level – it is capable of being manipulated by the cognitive system – then it need not be innate (i.e., having always been available at that level).

Amy Perfors (2012). Bayesian Models of Cognition. What's Built In After All? Philosophy Compass 7/2, p. 132