Teleosemantics and the frogs

Some have thought that the plausibility of teleosemantics requires that it yield a determinate answer to the question of what the semantic “content” is of the “representation” triggered in the optic nerve of a frog that spots a fly. An outsize literature has resulted in which, unfortunately, a numbe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mind & language 2024-02, Vol.39 (1), p.52-60
Main Author: Millikan, Ruth Garrett
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
biosemantics
Determinate
frog‐representation
representation
Semantics
teleosemantics
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Summary:Some have thought that the plausibility of teleosemantics requires that it yield a determinate answer to the question of what the semantic “content” is of the “representation” triggered in the optic nerve of a frog that spots a fly. An outsize literature has resulted in which, unfortunately, a number of serious confusions and omissions that concern the way teleosemantics would have to work have appeared and been passed on uncorrected leaving a distorted and simplistic picture of the teleosemantic position. I will speak to a half dozen of the worst of these misunderstandings and then say just a word about the frog question itself.
ISSN:0268-1064
1468-0017
DOI:10.1111/mila.12456