Reviews for Rethinking cognitive theory

The average rating for Rethinking cognitive theory based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-07-30 00:00:00 Susan Crowley The book really is a relic in philosophy of mind. It needs to be read in the context of its time, when AI was the hot-button issue and theories of language were central to understand the relationship between natural languages, thought, and computation. Fodor spends an enormous amount of time commenting on those issues. Some of the discussion is still relevant, but because the conversation has changed so much in the subsequent decades, much of the language and many of the concepts have evolved well beyond what Fodor is using. As a result, those interested in contemporary philosophy of mind are probably best looking elsewhere even for the commentaries on language-of-thought; Fodor's more recent work, along with some of his allies in the discussion, is available other places, and prefaces that much better. Fodor is not my bag, in terms of content, either. He is very committed, even now, to a view of mind and language that seems to me to be enormously antiquated [which just means twenty or thirty years old, really] and he doesn't do a particularly good job at considering the alternatives outside of the conventional debate that this book and some of his more famous work came to prominence during. That said, Fodor is funny, and while some of the writing is hard to digest and clunky, he does maintain a distinct voice and entertaining sense of humor. He pokes fun at Heidegger, as well as many contemporary theorists, and it makes the last few essays in the book much easier to read. He doesn't do as much joking around or playing with structure during the beginning of the book, so those philosophers who take this review as claiming the entire thing is funny, don't read too much into it. But I do think that is one of the better features of Fodor's writing, along with his impeccable organization and honesty during, especially, the last few papers.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-03-08 00:00:00 Ronald P Omell The Ayn Rand Lexicon can be a great resource. Now it is available for free at