The Modularity of Mind [Paperback]

Jerry A. Fodor (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262560259 | ISBN-13: 978-0262560252 | Publication Date: April 6, 1983

This study synthesizes current information from the various fields of cognitive science in support of a new and exciting theory of mind. Most psychologists study horizontal processes like memory and information flow; Fodor postulates a vertical and modular psychological organization underlying biologically coherent behaviors. This view of mental architecture is consistent with the historical tradition of faculty psychology while integrating a computational approach to mental processes. One of the most notable aspects of Fodor's work is that it articulates features not only of speculative cognitive architectures but also of current research in artificial intelligence.Jerry A. Fodor is Professor of Psychology and Chairman of the Department of Philosophy at MIT.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The issue Fodor writes about is central to the psychology of perception, cognition, and action. It is the central issue for anyone who would seriously study the neurobiology of behavior: Is the mind organized horizontally or vertically or both, and what are the consequences to psychology of proceeding on one assumption or the other? This has been little analyzed and written about. Jerry Fodor has repaired that omission and had done it brilliantly." Alvin Liberman, Yale University, President, Haskins Laboratories

"Jerry Fodor's Modularity of Mind is a beginning... [It] is the first major monograph in this century to explore some variations on faculty psychology [and] is the best thing Fodor has done since The Language of Thought, mainly because it takes such a wide sweep and yet manages to concentrate all the arguments upon the central issue in both neuropsychology and information-processing psychology." John C. Marshall , The Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford,

"Jerry Fodor"s Modularity of Mind is a beginning... [It] is the first major monograph in this century to explore some variations on faculty psychology [and] is the best thing Fodor has done since The Language of Thought, mainly because it takes such a wide sweep and yet manages to concentrate all the arguments upon the central issue in both neuropsychology and information-processing psychology." John C. Marshall , The Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford,

About the Author

Jerry A. Fodor is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is the author of Modularity of Mind and RePresentations: Philosophical Essays on the Foundations of Cognitive Science.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: A Bradford Book (April 6, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262560259
• ISBN-13: 978-0262560252
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #231,801 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A CLASSIC WORK OF SCHOLARSHIP, October 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Modularity of Mind (Paperback)

Fodor's short book made "faculty psychology" respectable again and has generated a large literature in psychology, philosophy, and linguistics. Fodor offers brilliant arguments that the mind has special-purpose perceptual and linguistic modules. A central thesis of Fodor's book is that these modules are "informationally encapsulated" -- that is, the modules do their work without being able to access the beliefs that the person has. Thus in an important sense perception is theory-neutral, because what you believe will not affect what you see, hear, etc. For a contrasting view, read chapter two of Paul Churchland's Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Perception. By the way, Fodor's book is brilliant, but don't look for the entertainingly malicious flashes of humor that typify many of his essays.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars How People Really Think, January 16, 2006

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Modularity of Mind (Paperback)

This classic in cognitive science has a great deal to say, but an awkward way of saying it. Author Jerry A. Fodor's style is academic and dense, a potential barrier to all but the most determined, well-prepared reader. Arcane and brilliant, Fodor intersperses colloquial jests with jargon-burdened exposition, leading one to believe that he could have written a book more accessible to the lay reader had he wished to do so. We find, however, that the book repays the persistent, dedicated reader. The reward is a fascinating exploration of the mind, drawing on the literature of epistemology and psychology, with occasional detours down the rarely explored byways of phrenology.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Locus classicus in philosophy of psychology, August 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Modularity of Mind (Paperback)

This book really set the agenda in thinking about cognitive architecture for many approaches in thinking about the mind during the late 80s and 90s. In some ways, it is philosophical synthesis of concrete gains from research science in linguistics and cognitive psychology. But it also articulates the path down which much recent thinking has gone. The issue of modularity is getting hot now, especially with the business about evolutionary psychology. This and Fodor's _Psychosemantics_ are *the* texts of recent theoretical cognitive science (if you ask me). Oh, and it doesn't have too many obscurely humorous bits designed to confuse you, as some other of his books do.