S

satisficing:
 
A concept due to Herbert Simon which identifies the decision making process whereby one chooses an option that is, while perhaps not the best, good enough.
 
<Details & References> Chris Eliasmith
 
semantics:
 
The study of relations between a representation and what it represents.
 
Chris Eliasmith
 
semantics, functional role:
 
The view that the meaning of a representation is the role of that representation in the cognitive life of the agent. It is an extension of the well known "use" theory of meaning as it supplements external use by including the role of a symbol inside a computer or a brain.
 
<Details & References> Ned Block
 
semantics, naturalized:
 
The project of explaining semantic notions, such as 'means', 'refers', 'denotes', in terms of non-semantic notions, such as correlation, causation, resemblance, structural isomorphism, or teleological function. Some leading efforts in this area include Dretske, 1988, Fodor, 1990, and Millikan, 1984.
 
<References> Ken Aizawa
 
sense:
 
The property of representations of a part of the world that captures that part as being a certain way; meaning.
 
<Details & References> Chris Eliasmith
 
short term memory:
 
silicon chip replacement thought experiment:
 
A thought experiment proposed to support the notion of causal functionalism in Pylyshyn (1980).
 
<Details & References> Pete Mandik
 
skepticism:
 
Any of a class of views that denies some claim to knowledge. See Cartesian skepticism.
 
<Details> Pete Mandik
 
subjectivity:
 
The property of being subjective. See subjective, objective.
 
Pete Mandik
 
subjective:
 
Something is subjective insofar as it is dependent on either a particular mind or minds in general. See objective.
 
Pete Mandik
 
substance dualism:
 
The view that the mental and the physical comprise two different classes of objects: minds and bodies. See dualism, property dualism.
 
<Details & References> Pete Mandik
 
supervenience:
 
A set of properties or facts M supervenes on a set of properties or facts P if and only if there can be no changes or differences in M without there being changes or differences in P.
 
<Details & References> Pete Mandik
 
symbolicism:
 
An approach to understanding human cognition that is committed to language like symbolic processing as the best method of explanation. See also representation, distributed, connectionism, dynamical systems theory.
 
<Details & References> Chris Eliasmith
 
systematicity:
 
A number of putative psychological properties or regularities go by the name of systematicity. These diverse regularities are meant to constitute explananda that are supposed to support the view that there exists a syntactically and semantically combinatorial language of thought. See productivity of thought, compositionality, symbolicism.
 
<Details & References> Ken Aizawa