Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:05:40.563Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Massive Modularity, Content Integration, and Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Collin Rice
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

One of the obstacles facing massive modularity is how a pervasively modular mind might generate non-domain-specific thoughts by integrating the content produced by various domain-specific modules. Peter Carruthers has recently argued that the operations of the language faculty are constitutive of the process by which the human mind is able to integrate content from heterogeneous conceptual domains. In this article, I first argue that Carruthers's data do not provide support for either of two possible interpretations of his thesis. In addition, I provide empirical and theoretical reasons for thinking content integration is performed external to the language faculty.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 78 , Issue 5 , December 2011 , pp. 800 - 812
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

I would especially like to thank Philip Robbins for his invaluable encouragement and comments on earlier drafts of this article. I am also grateful to Peter Carruthers, Daniel Weiskopf, Zac Ernst, and Tyler Kasperbauer for comments on earlier versions of this work. In addition, I am indebted to André Ariew and Randall Westgren for their continued support. This research was partially supported by the Al and Mary Agnes McQuinn Chair in Entrepreneurial Leadership.

References

Astington, Janet Wilde, and Jenkins, Jennifer M.. 1999. “A Longitudinal Study of the Relation between Language and Theory-of-Mind Development.” Developmental Psychology 35 (5): 1311–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Atran, Scott. 2002. “A Meta-module for Conceptual Integration: Language or Theory of Mind?” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25:674–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, Clark H. 2005. “Enzymatic Computation and Cognitive Modularity.” Mind and Language 20:259–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carruthers, Peter. 2002. “The Cognitive Functions of Language.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25:657–726.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carruthers, Peter. 2006. The Architecture of the Mind: Massive Modularity and the Flexibility of Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1968. Language and Mind. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1975. Reflections on Language. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Gouteux, S., Thinus-Blanc, C., and Vauclair, J.. 2001. “Rhesus Monkeys Use Geometric and Non-geometric Information in a Re-orientation Task.” Journal of Experimental Psychology, General Proceedings 130 (3): 505–19.Google Scholar
Hermer, Linda, and Spelke, Elizabeth. 1994. “A Geometric Process for Spatial Reorientation in Young Children.” Nature 370:57–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hermer, Linda, and Spelke, Elizabeth. 1996. “Modularity and Development: The Case of Spatial Reorientation.” Cognition 61:195–232.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hermer-Vazquez, Linda, Spelke, Elizabeth S., and Katsnelson, Alla S.. 1999. “Sources of Flexibility in Human Cognition: Dual-Task Studies of Space and Language.” Cognitive Psychology 39:3–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Debbie M., Spetch, Marcia L., and Heth, C. Donald. 1998. “Pigeons’ (Columba livia) Encoding of Geometric and Featural Properties of a Spatial Environment.” Journal of Comparative Psychology 112 (3): 259–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nichols, Shaun, and Stich, Stephen. 2003. Mindreading: An Integrated Account of Pretence, Self-Awareness, and Understanding Other Minds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinker, Steven. 1997. The Language Instinct. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Robbins, Philip. 2002. “What Domain Integration Could Not Be.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25 (6): 696–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shusterman, Anna, and Spelke, Elizabeth. 2005. “Investigations in the Development of Spatial Reasoning.” In The Innate Mind: Structure and Content, ed. Carruthers, Peter, Laurence, Stephen, and Stich, Stephen, 89–106. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sovrano, Valeria Anna, Bisazza, Angelo, and Vallortigara, Giorgio. 2002. “Modularity and Spatial Reorientation in a Simple Mind: Encoding of Geometric and Non-geometric Properties of a Spatial Environment by Fish.” Cognition 85 (2): B51–B59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sovrano, Valeria Anna, Bisazza, Angelo, and Vallortigara, Giorgio. 2005. “Animals’ Use of Landmarks and Metric Information to Reorient: Effects of the Size of the Experimental Space.” Cognition 97 (2): 121–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vallortigara, Glorgio, Zanforlin, Mario, and Pasti, Giovanna. 1990. “Geometric Modules in Animal's Spatial Representations: A Test with Chicks.” Journal of Comparative Psychology 104 (3): 248–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varley, Rosemary. 2002. “Science without Grammar: Scientific Reasoning in Severe Agrammatic Aphasia.” In The Cognitive Basis of Science, ed. Carruthers, Peter, Stich, Stephen, and Siegal, Michael, 99–116. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varley, Rosemary, Klessinger, Nicolai, Romanowski, Charles, and Siegal, Michael. 2005. “Agrammatic but Numerate.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 102 (9): 3519–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Varley, Rosemary, and Siegal, Michael. 2000. “Evidence for Cognition without Grammar from Causal Reasoning and ‘Theory of Mind’ in an Agrammatic Aphasic Patient.” Current Biology 10 (12): 723–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varley, Rosemary, Siegal, Michael, and Want, Stephen C.. 2001. “Severe Impairment in Grammar Does Not Preclude Theory of Mind.” Neurocase 7 (6): 489–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicklund, Alissa H., Johnson, Nancy, and Weintraub, Sandra. 2004. “Preservation of Reasoning in Primary Progressive Aphasia: Further Differentiation from Alzheimer's Disease and the Behavioral Presentation of Frontotemporal Dementia.” Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 26 (3): 347–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed