This session introduces the philosophy of content (as the philosophy of the intentionality or aboutness of utterances and mental states) and its key challenge (of shedding light on how both true and false thought can be possible in the face of both a dilemma and the threat of regress using discussion by Ludwig Wittgenstein) before raising the question via a passage from the contemporary US philosopher of mind Jerry Fodor of how that challenge should be addressed.

 

The more general question raised - for which dealing with the puzzling nature of intentionality or aboutness is just an example - is whether philosophy should aim to ease puzzlement by reducing complex concepts to more basic, perhaps scientific, concepts, or whether there is an alternative.

 

Structure: