On Concepts, Modules, and Language

Cognitive Science at Its Core

Edited by Roberto G. de Almeida and Lila R. Gleitman

Gathers some of the most prominent classical, symbolic/computational cognitive scientists discussing Fodor's contribution to the field of cognitive science, particularly on language modularity and concepts.
Covers the foundations of cognitive science focusing on cognitive architecture, concepts, and psycholinguistics.
Noam Chomsky responds, for the first time in print, to some of Fodor's criticisms of his views on the modularity of language.

On Concepts, Modules, and Language

Cognitive Science at Its Core

Edited by Roberto G. de Almeida and Lila R. Gleitman

Description

What are the landmarks of the cognitive revolution? What are the core topics of modern cognitive science? Where is cognitive science heading? These and other questions are addressed in this volume by leading cognitive scientists as they examine the work of one of cognitive science's most influential and polemical figures: Jerry Fodor. Contributions by Noam Chomsky, Tom Bever, Merrill Garrett, Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, Zenon Pylyshyn, Janet Fodor, C. Randy Gallistel, Ernie Lepore, Mary C. Potter, Lila R. Gleitman, and others, put in perspective Fodor's contribution to cognitive science by focusing on three main themes: the nature of concepts, the modularity of language and vision, and the language of thought. On Modules, Concepts, and Language: Cognitive Science at Its Core is a one-of-a-kind series of essays on cognitive science and on Fodor.

In this volume, Chomsky contrasts, for the first time, his view of modularity with that of Fodor's; Bever--one of the pioneers of modern psycholinguistics--discusses the nature of consciousness in particular with respect to language perception; Garrett--another of the pioneers of psycholinguistics--reassesses his view of modularity in language production; Pylyshyn--one of the leading figures of the modern symbolic, computational view of the mind--presents his view of the connection between visual perception and conceptual attainment; Gallistel--one of the most prominent cognitive neuroscientists--presents a proposal on what the biological bases of the computational theory of mind might be. Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini discusses Fodor's views on conceptual nativism, stemming from the epic debate between Chomsky and Piaget, which Piattelli-Palmarini organized. These and many other key figures of cognitive science are brought together, for the first time, constituting the most up-to-date critical view of some of cognitive science's most polemical topics and its prospects as the science of the mind. This volume is aimed at students and advanced researchers in core areas of cognitive science and is bound to become one of the classics in the field.

On Concepts, Modules, and Language

Cognitive Science at Its Core

Edited by Roberto G. de Almeida and Lila R. Gleitman

Preface
Contributors
Introduction: A Fodor's Guide to Cognitive Science
Roberto G. de Almeida & Lila Gleitman

Part I. Language and the modularity of mind

1. Two notions of modularity
Noam Chomsky

2. Exploring the limits of modularity
Merrill F. Garrett

3. The modularity of sentence processing reconsidered
Fernanda Ferreira & James Nye

4. The unity of consciousness and the consciousness of unit
Thomas G. Bever

5. Semantics for a module
Roberto G. de Almeida & Ernie Lepore

6. Center-embedded sentences: What's pronounceable is comprehensible
Janet Dean Fodor, Stefanie Nickels, & Esther Schott

7. Getting to the root of the matter: acquisition of morphology
Natalie Batmanian & Karin Stromswold

8. Cognitive Science and Fodorian exceptionalism
Zenon W. Pylyshyn

Part II. Concepts and the Language of Thought

9. Fodor and the innateness of all (basic) concepts
Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini

10. The immediacy of conceptual processing
Mary C. Potter

11. On language and thought: A question of formats
David J. Lobina & Jose Garcia-Albea

12. The neurobiological bases for the computational theory of mind
Randy C. Gallistel

Index

On Concepts, Modules, and Language

Cognitive Science at Its Core

Edited by Roberto G. de Almeida and Lila R. Gleitman

Author Information

Roberto G. de Almeida is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Concordia University, in Montreal. He received his PhD in Psychology and Cognitive Science at Rutgers University (under the supervision of Jerry Fodor). His theoretical and empirical work is on the nature of lexical concepts, in particular on verb meaning, and on the nature of semantic composition. He co-edited with Christina Manoulidou the volume Cognitive Science Perspectives on Verb Representation and Processing (2015).

Lila R. Gleitman is an Emerita Professor in the Department of Psychology and the founding Director of the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science with A. Joshi at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research concerns the mental lexicon and the syntax-semantics interface, language acquisition, and the relation between language and thought.

Contributors:

Natalie Batmanian
Department of Psychology
Rutgers University
152 Frelinghuysen Rd.
Piscataway, NJ 08854-8020
USA
natalie.batmanian@sciwomen.rutgers.edu

Thomas G. Bever
Departments of Psychology and
Linguistics
University of Arizona
1103 East University Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85721-0068
USA
tgb@email.arizona.edu

Noam Chomsky
Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
USA
chomsky@mit.edu

Roberto G. de Almeida
Department of Psychology
Concordia University
7141 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec, H4B 1R6
Canada
roberto.dealmeida@concordia.ca

Fernanda Ferreira
Department of Psychology
University of California, Davis
1 Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616
USA
fferreira@ucdavis.edu

Janet Dean Fodor
Department of Linguistics
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10016
USA
jfodor@gc.cuny.edu

C. Randy Gallistel
Department of Psychology and
Center for Cognitive Science
Rutgers University
152 Frelinghuysen Rd.
Piscataway, NJ 08854-8020
USA
galliste@ruccs.rutgers.edu

Jose Garcia-Albea
Department of Psychology
Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Campus Sescelades
43007, Tarragona
Spain
jegarcia.albea@urv.cat

Merrill F. Garrett
Department of Psychology
University of Arizona
1103 East University Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85721-0068
USA
garrett@u.arizona.edu

Lila Gleitman
Department of Psychology
University of Pennsylvania
3401 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6241
USA
gleitman@psych.upenn.edu

Ernie Lepore
Department of Philosophy and
Center for Cognitive Science
Rutgers University
152 Frelinghuysen Rd.
Piscataway, NJ 08854-8020
USA
lepore@ruccs.rutgers.edu

David J. Lobina
Faculty of Philosophy
University of Oxford
Radcliffe Observatory Quarter
Woodstock Rd.
Oxford, OX2 6GG
United Kingdom
dj.lobina@gmail.com

Stefanie Nickels
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Center for Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Research, McLean Hospital
DeMarneffe, 2nd Floor
115 Mill St., Belmont, MA 02478
USA
snickels@mclean.harvard.edu

James Nye
Department of Psychology
University of California, Davis
1 Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616
USA

Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini
Department of Psychology
University of Arizona
1103 East University Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85721-0068
USA
massimo@email.arizona.edu

Mary C. Potter
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
43 Vassar St.
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
mpotter@mit.edu

Esther Schott
Department of Psychology
Concordia University, Loyola Campus
7141 Sherbrooke West, PY-146
Montreal, Quebec, H4B 1R6
Canada
e schot@live.concordia.ca

Karin Stromswold
Department of Psychology and
Center for Cognitive Science
Rutgers University
152 Frelinghuysen Rd.
Piscataway, NJ 08854
USA
karin@ruccs.rutgers.edu

Zenon W. Pylyshyn
Center for Cognitive Science
Rutgers University
152 Frelinghuysen Rd.
Piscataway, NJ 08854-8020
USA
zenon@ruccs.rutgers.edu

On Concepts, Modules, and Language

Cognitive Science at Its Core

Edited by Roberto G. de Almeida and Lila R. Gleitman

Reviews and Awards

"The main topics (Language of thought; Modularity) represent two of the most important in the field, with Fodor delivering the deepest and most probing analyses of the problems. Fodor's views, and indeed, the general issues of language and mind, and of modularity, remain fundamental to all of cognitive science, and to the fields that intersect with it-psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, etc. The topics also have historically invited controversy from great thinkers, including many of the writers represented in the volume, which is likely to contribute to an on-going exciting dialogue within the field. The book will be widely read, not only by the student population...but also by senior scientists in the field...[T]he volume represents a very serious and significant contribution to the field." --Barbara Landau, PhD, Dick and Lydia Todd Professor and Director, Science of Learning Institute, Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University