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The Mind Doesn't Work That Way Hardcover – July 24, 2000

by Jerry Fodor (Author)

5 customer reviews

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In this engaging book, Jerry Fodor argues against the widely held view that mental processes are largely computations, that the architecture of cognition is massively modular, and that the explanation of our innate mental structure is basically Darwinian. Although Fodor has praised the computational theory of mind as the best theory of cognition that we have got, he considers it to be only a fragment of the truth. In fact, he claims, cognitive scientists do not really know much yet about how the mind works (the book's title refers to Steve Pinker's How the Mind Works).

Fodor's primary aim is to explore the relationship among computational and modular theories of mind, nativism, and evolutionary psychology. Along the way, he explains how Chomsky's version of nativism differs from that of the widely received New Synthesis approach. He concludes that although we have no grounds to suppose that most of the mind is modular, we have no idea how nonmodular cognition could work. Thus, according to Fodor, cognitive science has hardly gotten started.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Criticism from within always stings more sharply. When one of computational psychology's peppiest cheerleaders questions the enthusiasm of his fellows, we can expect some juicy, if civil, dialogue ahead. Jerry Fodor does just this in The Mind Doesn't Work That Way: The Scope and Limits of Computational Psychology. Named to answer Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works, this short, focused, and heavy book calls Pinker and others to task for claiming too much for CP. While acknowledging that it's "by far the best theory of cognition that we've got," he expresses concern about the popularizations--and privately held beliefs--that imply that the strongly nativist computational theory explains, or will explain, our conscious and intentional being in toto. Using scholarly, diplomatic, and sometimes hysterically funny language, Fodor demolishes the notion that CP has anything to say about large-scale or global thinking, and casts doubt on its future prospects. Proceeding more scientifically than his scientist colleagues, he proposes that a better theory of mind is looming, and will encompass CP much as relativity encompassed classical mechanics. Encouraging debate on the fundamentals of this increasingly popular theory, especially within the ranks of its adherents, can only be good for the theory and for cognitive science itself. The Mind Doesn't Work That Way follows in the great philosophical tradition of clobbering ideas in order to make them stronger, and provides a great mental workout for the reader. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly

How does the mind really work? We don't yet know, but in his previous writings, prolific Rutgers philosopher Fodor (Modularity of Mind; The Elm and the Expert) helped provide cognitive science with what he calls a Computational Theory of Mind (CTM). (The theory in brief: the mind works like a certain kind of computer, with built-in modes of operation; some of these modes are involved in language, as predicted by Noam Chomsky.) Fodor still supports such a theory of mind, but other scientists, he thinks, have misused the model: popular writers and influential thinkers like Steven Pinker (How the Mind Works) have hooked up CTM to sociobiology to give an inaccurate picture of thoughts and feelingsAone that, Fodor argues, relies on wrong generalizations, unreliable assumptions and an unsupportable confidence that we already have the whole picture. This picture is called the New Synthesis, and Fodor writes to refute it. He also wishes to show, by contrast, what remains useful about computational models of biologically based mental processes. One of Fodor's arguments distinguishes between local and global cognition. Local cognitionAlike understanding the word "cat"Acan be explained by CTM, studied by linguists and traced to particular parts of the brain. Global cognitionAlike deciding to acquire a catAgenerally can't and may never be explained. The New Synthesis, Fodor says, has confused the two, and he sets out to untangle them. His prose is informal, exact and aimed at fairly serious nonspecialists: those who don't know who Chomsky or Alan Turing are, or what a syntactic structure is, aren't the audience for this book. Those who do know, you may read Fodor's case in one sitting, and with intense interestA whether or not they find his logic persuasive.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product details

Series: Representation and Mind
Hardcover: 144 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press; 1st edition (July 24, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262062127
ISBN-13: 978-0262062121
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
Average Customer Review: 5 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,532,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2903 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Metaphysics
- #3693 in Books > Medical Books > Psychology > Cognitive
- #4995 in Books > Science & Math > Behavioral Sciences > Cognitive Psychology

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baylor

Wanted a fight, found a melt down

January 20, 2004

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Cognitive science is a failure. AI is a massive failure. Cognitive scientists know their computational theories of mind are wrong but they are in "deep denial". Fighting words from famous philosopher Jerry Fodor's response to famous psychologist Steven Pinker's "How The Mind Works". With fighting words like that, i was expecting a really good fight, with facts being offered, stats being analyzed and Pinker's analysis of topographical cortical maps and the visual processing map dissected
And instead i got... this
Let's start with writing. It's typical Fodor, which means it would put a coked-up Tigger to sleep and requires a Latin dictionary and the patience of Job to slog through. It's boring and difficult to read. But since it's a Fodor book, you probably already knew that. He's a fun guy and in previous books had some good points but man is he boring
But i didn't expect good writing, good structure or brevity. i expected good ideas. But unless they're hiding on the last page (sorry, i can't keep reading this thing), there are none in this book. You might wonder why a philosopher whose interest is in symbolic logic and grammar is writing a book about psychologists who use a very loose analogy about the mind being like computer software. After reading this book, so am i
So why is Pinker and everyone else in cognitive science wrong? Fodor's argument in a nutshell - because computer subroutines can't access information outside of the subroutine. To use Fodor's example (of which he has *very* few), you want to go to Chicago. It's not windy. Is that good? If you're sailing a boat, yes, otherwise no. A computer can't figure that out because it lacks context - it needs to know how you're traveling before judging the meaning of wind conditions. And computers, Fodor argues, can't do that. Since computers have subroutines and subroutines have no access to relevant data, computers can't solve simple problems and so the mind can't be like a computer. Take that Pinker! Makes sense? Of course not
Fodor approaches the topic of psychology and computers from a logician's standpoint, which is to say he makes some really bad, sweeping assumptions then uses really high level logic to prove that reality doesn't exist. For Fodor, it's just 5 steps - 1.A mental representation must have a syntax, 2.If you change the sytax the "Turing machine" can no longer function, 3.Therefore syntax can't vary by context, 4.Therefore mental processes can't be affected by context 5.But they are so the mind isn't a computer and cognitive science is wrong. (He later adds Principle M(CTM) which says sunroutines can access external data but an exhaustive search/tablescan of all memory would be needed and that would be stupid so cognitive science is stupid)
The book is a one trick pony. Computers supposedly can't solve the simple problems he describes (logical abduction), they are required to solve them based on the way he chose to define his terms and therefore the field and its theories are irretrievably broken. The book is laced with numerous, sweeping, unfounded assumptions that are glaringly wrong to anyone familiar with computers. The book lacks common sense. The book's main and only objection is an academic exercise completely divorced from anything resembling cognitive science

40 people found this helpful41 people found this helpful

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The philosopher

ANOTHER EXCELLENT FODOR BOOK

January 23, 2002

Format: Paperback

Fodor is one of our greatest living philosophers. He has laid out groundbreaking theories on the philosophy of mind and language. This book is a bit of a departure, in that he is less interested in theory-building than in theory-destruction. You might think that the result would be rather dreary -- who wants to hear someone harping on other people's mistakes all of the time? -- but in fact the book is very engaging.
Fodor argues that while "computational" models of the mind (roughly, theories that the mind is just a computer) may be able to explain how the mind's modules work, they fail to explain how the mind's central processor works. (If the theory of modules and central processors is unfamiliar to you, then you MUST first read Fodor's excellent book "The Modularity of Mind" in order to understand "The Mind Doesn't Work That Way.") The primary problem, as Fodor sees it, is that central processors are general-problem solvers (or, more accurately, general-interest learners). They work with large databases of beliefs and are bombarded by immense amounts of information. If the mind were like a computer, it would experience the problem of "combinatorial explosion" as it tried to analyze all of this information, that problem being that with so many sentences in the language of thought, there would be far too many calculations to perform over these sentences in anything like a reasonable amount of time. Put another way, if you think your computer is slow loading Windows 2000, just wait until it had to load and analyze the entire database of a person's beliefs AND chew gum at the same time.
Although the problem of combinatorial explosion is the driving problem in the book, Fodor addresses many other interesting topics in his typically witty and insightful way. He gives glancing blows to connectionism, Darwinian approaches to psychology, the theory of heuristics, and more.
As always, Fodor presents many forceful and ingenious arguments, and even when I disagree with him (as I often do), I always walk away from his books understanding difficult issues more clearly and having a profound respect for his penetrating intellect.
This book is not a good introduction to Fodor's work or to philosophy of mind, but for those with some grasp of both, I highly recommend "The Mind Doesn't Work That Way." If only he had come up with a better title....

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N N Taleb

Fodor has the guts to take on... Fodor

November 9, 2003

Format: Hardcover

This critique of the computational theory of mind and the pan-adaptionist tradition is clearly so honest that it goes after the ideas promoted by Fodor's own 1983 watershed book "The Modularity of Mind". In brief the essay is an attack on massive modularity by saying that there are things after all that escape the programming (encapsulation and opacity are key: how can we talk about something OPAQUE? We know nothing about a few critical things...).
Granted the book is horribly written (that is Fodor's charm after all) but his argumentation is so ferocious that he ends up loud & clear.
The man is critical of his own ideas, and of the current in thought that he he helped create --one may use Fodor-1 against Fodor-2. Perhaps persons I hold in highest respect are those who go after their own ideas!
Bravo Fodor. Even if I do not agree I can't help admiring the man.

13 people found this helpful14 people found this helpful

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Alan Wilder

Very Relevant

August 3, 2003

Format: Paperback

Pinker and company needed some curbing of egos. This book does just that, and it explains some of the real problems. Fodor is an important author.

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Kirtland Peterson

Before Spending Your Hard-Earned Cash

December 16, 2007

Format: Paperback

The "How The Mind Works" (Pinker) vs. "The Mind Doesn't Work This Way" (Fodor) debate is well captured in a reply by Pinker. Worth reading before opening your wallet and purchasing TMDWTW.

Google "Steven Pinker." Click on his Harvard page. Go to "Articles." Look down to 2005, "So How Does The Mind Work?" Click, get the PDF download, and enjoy a good read.

Me? I'm descended from monkeys, the proud product of natural selection. Doesn't bother me in the slightest. And given my ancestry, I'm amazed and grateful I can use this MacBook here... Pretty cool, actually.

Kirtland Peterson

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