For permission or other information email Prof. Pylyshyn at: zenon@ruccs.rutgers.edu

People have always wondered how thinking takes place and what thoughts are constructed from. We typically experience our thoughts as involving pictorial (or sensory) contents or as being in words. Although this idea has been enshrined in psychology as the “dual code” theory of reasoning and memory, serious questions have been raised concerning this view. It appears that whatever the form of our thoughts it is unlikely that it is anything like our experience of them. But if thought is not in pictures or words, what form does it take? If we do not sometimes think in words, then what actually goes on when we think by engaging in an “inner dialogue”? And if we do not sometimes think in pictures, what goes on when we reason by creating and examining “mental images”?

This course will examine a number of issues connected with the question of the format of thought, including whether learning a new language influences thought, whether some thoughts are in an “analogue” as opposed to language-like form, and whether there is a “language of thought” to which we have no conscious access.

Requirements: Students are required to post comments or questions on the class Bulletin Board after each lecture. The class assignment is a 2000 word (approx) essay on a topic related to the course content, due by Dec 16 (preferably by email).

Readings:
Prinz, J.J. (2002). Furnishing the Mind: Concepts and their Perceptual Basis. MIT Press.
Pylyshyn, Z. W. (in press). Seeing and visualizing: It’s not what you think. Chapters 6-8.