PURPOSE, EVOLUTION AND MENTAL CONTENT

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Topic 2

• PURPOSE, EVOLUTION AND MENTAL CONTENT

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Teleological Accounts of Intentional content

• Belief that theres water in the bottle
• Intentionality
• Normativity
• How can one account for these in scientific /
  biological terms?

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PROPER FUNCTION

• Bottle openers have a function
• They can function correctly and incorrectly
• Biological entities also have a function
• Hearts, chlorophyll molecules, rods and cones
• Mental representations also have a function
• WATER, TIGER

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• MRs were designed to be present in the mind in
  the presence of certain things in the world
• We sometimes have WATER-thoughts in the presence
  of water, yet also sometimes in the presence of
  mirages or vodka
• But we should only have WATER thoughts in the
  presence of water since having them in such
  circumstances explains why we are capable of such
  thoughts

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ANIMALS AND INTENTIONALITY

• Millikan and the dance of the bumble bee

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• Problems for Teleological Accounts of
  Intentionality

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• 1. Swampman
• 2. Truth and biological success
• 3. Recent beliefs
• 4. Empty names
• 5. Indeterminacy

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1. Swampman

• Lightning hits the swamp and creates SwampDan
• SwampDan is molecule-for-molecule identical to
  Dan
• According to teleological theorists, though,
  SwampDan does not have intentional states

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• Reductio ad absurdum
• 1. Swampman physically identical to me
• 2. Intuition its therefore mentally identical
  to me
• 3. Teleological theory claims Swampman is
  mentally different to me
• Conclusion Teleological theory cannot therefore
  be correct

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responses

• Bite the bullet
• Swampman does not have a mind
• Our intuitions can be wrong

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Externalism

• Internalism mental states constituted by things
  that are literally inside the skull
• Externalism content of mental states in part
  determined by things in the outside world
• Twin Earth
• Cf. Descartes demon

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2. Truth and Biological Success

• True beliefs evolutionarily advantageous
  beliefs
• But is it always best to believe the truth?

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• Sometimes its best to have false beliefs
• False beliefs ? success ? survival
• Teleology wouldnt therefore pick out the right
  correctness conditions for these beliefs
• Candidates?
• I believe that all mushrooms are poisonous

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responses

• 1. All candidates controversial
• Sure, sometimes advantageous to me
• but not generally of evolutionary advantage
• A community may miss out on the nutritional value
  of mushrooms

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• 2. The content of the concepts MUSHROOM,
  POISONOUS, and EAT is derived from evolution
• Evolution explains the normativity of concepts
  and not that of all beliefs
• Beliefs are then constituted by concepts with
  evolutionarily defined content

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3. NEW BELIEFS

• No one has ever had the belief before that
  bananas taste like parsnips
• This beliefs could not therefore have contributed
  to our evolutionary success
• Teleological theory cannot therefore account for
  it
• But BANANAS and TASTES LIKE PARSNIP could
  plausibly contribute to our success

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• And what about beliefs that could only have been
  held recently
• Too recently for them to have had any impact on
  biological success or evolution
• INTERNET, BONNIE PRINCE BILLY, EUROS

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reply

• Compositional semantics
• INTERNET TELEPHONE COMPUTER LIBRARY
• TELEPHONE VOICE DISTANCE
• BONNIE PRINCE BILLY MAN BEARD SINGER