Jerry Fodor

confirmation hypothesis belief system global properties

"The degree of confirmation assigned to any given hypothesis is sensitive to properties of the entire belief system... simplicity, plausibility, and conservatism are properties that theories have in virtue of their relation to the whole structure of scientific beliefs taken collectively. A measure of conservatism or simplicity would be a metric over global properties of belief systems."

— Jerry Fodor (1935-2017)

computational process symbolic formal representation syntax

"I take it that computational processes are both symbolic and formal. They are symbolic because they are defined over representations, and they are formal because they apply to representations, in virtue of (roughly) the syntax of the representations."

— Jerry Fodor (1935-2017)

meaning of life PhD philosophy

"I rather doubt that life has a meaning. If I thought perhaps it did, and I wanted to find out what its meaning is, I don't imagine I'd ask someone whose credentials consist of a PhD in philosophy."

— Jerry Fodor (1935-2017)

content thought external relations world

"The content of a thought depends on its external relations; on the way that the thought is related to the world, not on the way that it is related to other thoughts."

— Jerry Fodor (1935-2017)

computer community head charge myself

"If, in short, there is a community of computers living in my head, there had also better be somebody who is in charge; and, by God, it had better be me."

— Jerry Fodor (1935-2017)

gap mind world posit internal representation

“There is a gap between the mind and the world, and (as far as anybody knows) you need to posit internal representations if you are to have a hope of getting across it. Mind the gap. You’ll regret it if you don't.”

— Jerry Fodor (1935-2017)

philosopher problem science empirical method

“Some philosophers hold that philosophy is what you do to a problem until it’s clear enough to solve it by doing science. Others hold that if a philosophical problem succumbs to empirical methods, that shows it wasn’t really philosophical to begin with.”

— Jerry Fodor (1935-2017)

sun rise knowledge how puzzle

“The sun will rise tomorrow morning; I know that perfectly well. But figuring out how I could know it is, as Hume pointed out, a bit of a puzzle.”

— Jerry Fodor (1935-2017)

sel-pity onion weep

“Self-pity can make one weep, as can onions.”

— Jerry Fodor (1935-2017)