Abstract
One of the main challenges that Jerry Fodor and Zenon Pylyshyn (Cognition 28:3–71, 1988) posed for any connectionist theory of cognitive architecture is to explain the systematicity of thought without implementing a Language of Thought (LOT) architecture. The systematicity challenge presents a dilemma: if connectionism cannot explain the systematicity of thought, then it fails to offer an adequate theory of cognitive architecture; and if it explains the systematicity of thought by implementing a LOT architecture, then it fails to offer an alternative to the LOT hypothesis. Given that thought is systematic, connectionism can offer an adequate alternative to the LOT hypothesis only if it can meet the challenge. Although some critics tried to meet the challenge, others argued that it need not be met since thought is not in fact systematic; and some claimed not to even understand the claim that thought is systematic. I do not here examine attempts to answer the challenge. Instead, I defend the challenge itself by explicating the notion of systematicity in a way that I hope makes clear that thought is indeed systematic, and so that to offer an adequate alternative to the LOT hypothesis, connectionism must meet the challenge.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aizawa K. (2003) The systematicity arguments. Kluwer Academic Press., Dordrecht
Braddon-Mitchell D., Fitzpatrick J. (1990) Explanation and the language of thought. Synthese 83: 3–29
Chalmers D. (1990) Syntactic transformations on distributed representations. Connectionism Science 2: 53–62
Clark A. (1989) Microcognition: Philosophy, cognitive science, and parallel distributed processing. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass
Cummins R. (1996) Systematicity. The Journal of Philosophy 93: 591–614
Cummins R., Byrd D., Poirier P., Roth M., Schwarz G. (2001) Systematicity and the cognition of structured domains. The Journal of Philosophy 98: 167–185
Davies, M. (1991). Concepts, connectionism and the language of thought. In W. Ramsey, S. Stich, & D. Rumelhart, Philosophy and connectionist theory (pp. 229–257). Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Evans G. (1982) The varieties of reference. Clarendon, Oxford
Fodor J., Lepore E. (1992) Holism: A shopper’s guide. Basil Blackwell, Oxford
Fodor J., McLaughlin B. P. (1990) Connectionism and the problem of systematicity: Why Smolensky’s solution does not work. Cognition 35: 183–204
Fodor J., Pylyshyn P. (1988) Connectionism and cognitive architecture: A critical analysis. Cognition 28: 3–71
Grandy R. (1975) Stuff and things. Synthese 31: 479–485
Johnson K. (2004) On the systematicity of language and thought. The Journal of Philosophy 3: 111–139
Lewis, D. K. (1975). Languages and language. In K. Gundersten, Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science (Vol. VIII). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Marcus G. F. (2001) The algebraic mind: Integrating connectionism and cognitive science. MIT press, Cambridge, MA
Matthews R. (1994) Three-concept monte: Explanation, implementation and systematicity. Synthese 101: 347–363
McLaughlin B. P. (1987) Tye on connectionism. Southern Journal of Philosophy, Spindel Issue 26: 185–193
McLaughlin B. P. (1993a) The connectionism/classicism battle to win souls. Philosophical Studies 71: 163–190
McLaughlin, B. P. (1993b). Systematicity, conceptual truth, and evolution. In C. Hookway & D. Peterson, Philosophy and cognitive science, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement No.34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McLaughlin, B. P. (1997), Classical constituents in Smolensky’s ICS architecture, In M. L. D. Chiara, K. Doets, D. Mundici, & J. van Bentham (Eds.), Structures and Norms in Science: Volume Two of the Tenth International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Florence, August 1995, Synthese Library (Vol. 260), Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Niklasson L. F., van Gelder T. (1994) On being systematically connectionist. Mind and Language 9: 288–302
Quine W. V. O. (1960) Word and object. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass
Quine W. V. O. (1970) The philosophy of logic. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass
Ramsey, W., Stich, S.P., & Garon, J. (1990). Connectionism, eliminativism and the future of psychology. Philosophical Perspectives, Action Theory and Philosophy of Mind, 4, 173–196.
Rumelhart, D., & McClelland, J. (1986). PDP models and general issues in cognitive science. In D. Rumelhart, J. McClelland, The PDP Research Group (Eds.), Parallel distributed processing (Vol. 1), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, A Bradford Book.
Smolensky P. (1987) The constituent structure of mental states: A reply to Fodor and Pylyshyn, Spindel Conference on Connectionism. Southern Journal of Philosophy 26: 137–160
Smolensky, P. (1995). Reply: Constituent structure and explanation in an integrated connectionist/symbolic cognitive architecture. In C. Macdonald & G. Macdonald (Eds.), Connectionism: Debates on psychological explanation (pp. 223–290). Oxford: Blackwell.
Smolensky, P., Legendre, G., & Miyata, Y. (1992). Principles for an integrated connectionist/symbolic theory of higher-cognition. Technical Report CU-CS-600-92, Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder.
van Gelder, T., & Niklasson, L.F. (1994). Classicism and cognitive architecture. Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 905–909). Atlanta, GA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McLaughlin, B.P. Systematicity redux. Synthese 170, 251–274 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-009-9582-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-009-9582-0