Mental Iconicity (2023)

ABOUT

Prof. Gabriel Greenberg [[email protected]]
Philosophy 386: Graduate Seminar in Philosophy of Mind (Stanford)
When: Thurs 1:30-4:20,
Where: Bldg 200-013
Office hours: Fri 2-3 pm by zoom (link here). In person by appt.

SYLLABUS

This seminar will examine the question of format in mental representation, from the perspective of an informational and computational theory of mind. Taking the language of thought hypothesis as our foil, we will look at evidence and arguments for the existence of diagrammatic, pictorial, and map-like representations in the mind and in the brain.

Subject to revision! Please refresh regularly.
Readings marked with a * will be the focus of discussion in class.

1. Iconic and symbolic representation
1/12

Week 1 Handout

Reading:

Giardino and Greenberg (2015) "Varieties of iconicity"
* Greenberg (2022) "The iconic-symbolic spectrum"

Recommended:

Shimojima (2001) "The graphic-linguistic distinction"

2. Informational teleosemantics I: representation
1/19

Week 2 Handout

Reading:

* Shea (2018) Representations in Cognitive Science, Chapter 4: "Correlational Information" (especially 4.1-4.5)
Neander (2017) A Mark of the Mental, Ch. 5: "Simple Minds"

Recommended:

Gallistel and King (2009) Memory and the Computational Brain, Chapter 4: "Representations" and Chapter 5: "Symbols"
Shea (2018) Representations in Cognitive Science (especially Chapter 3: "Functions for representation")

Background:

Jacob (2019) SEP: "Intentionality: 9. Can intentionality be naturalized?"
Schulte and Neander (2002) SEP: "Teleological Theories of Mental Content"

3. Informational teleosemantics II:
structural iconicity
2/2

Week 3 Handout

Reading:

* Shea (2018) Representations in Cognitive Science, Ch: 5 "Structural correspondence"

Neander (2017) A Mark of the Mental, Ch. 8 "Causally driven analogs"

Recommended:

Moser, Kropff,and Moser (2008) "Place Cells, Grid Cells, and the Brain’s Spatial Representation System"
Shepard and Chipman (1970) "Second-order isomorphism of internal representations"

4. Language-like thought
[Make-up class]
Tuesday 2/7
Building 80-113

Week 4 Handout

Reading:

* Fodor (1987) "Why there still has to be a language of thought"
Quilty-Dunn, Porot, and Mandelbaum (2022) "The best game in town: the re-emergence of the language of thought hypothesis across the cognitive sciences"

Recommended:

Rescorla (2021) SEP: "The language of thought hypothesis"

5. Map-like thought
2/9

Week 5 Handout

Reading:

* Camp (2007) "Thinking with maps"
Rescorla (2009) "Cognitive maps and the language of thought"

Recommended:

Camp (2018) "Why maps are not propositional"
Peer et al. (2021) "Structuring knowledge with cognitive maps and cognitive graphs"

Friday 2/17: Short paper due
In about 5 pages, summarize and evaluate a single idea (or two closely related ideas) from one (or two) of the readings. Discuss at least one example in detail.

6. Symbolic perception
2/16

Week 6 Handout

Reading:

Pylyshyn (2007) Things and Places, Ch. 1: "Introducing the problem: connecting perception and the world"
* Green and Quilty-Dunn (2017) "What is an object file?"

Recommended

Quilty-Dunn (2019) "Perceptual pluralism"

7. Iconic perception
2/23

Week 7 Handout

Reading:

Peacocke (2019) The Primacy of Metaphysics, Ch. 2: "Magnitudes" [2.1-2.3]
* Burge (2022) Perception: First Form of Mind, Ch. 9: "The Iconic Nature of Perception" [1-23, 39, 58-62]

Recommended:

Beck (2018) "Analog mental representation"
Beck (2019) "Perception is analog: the argument from Weber's Law"
Clarke (2022) "Mapping the visual icon"

Monday 2/27: Long paper preview due
By this date, schedule a meeting with me to discuss themes or an outline for your final paper.

8. Retinotopic maps
3/2

Week 8 Handout
Week 8 Slides

Reading:

* Schwarzlose (2021) Brainscapes, Ch. 1: "An atlas of you: what is a brain map?"
* Frisby and Stone (2010) Seeing, Ch. 9: "Seeing with brain maps" [229-238, 247-253]

Recommended:

Kaas (1997) "Topographic Maps are Fundamental to Sensory Processing"
Chklovskii and Koulakov (2004) "Maps in the brain: What can we learn from them?" [369-374, 384-388]
Brewer and Barton (2012) "Visual field map organization in human visual cortex"
Wandell et al. (2007) "Visual field maps in human cortex"

9. Retinotopic semantics
3/9

Week 9 Handout

Reading:

Greenberg (2021) "Semantics of pictorial space" [1-26]

Recommended:

Peacocke (1992) "Perceptual concepts"
Lande (2018) "The perspectival character of perception"

10. Brain maps
3/16

Week 10 Handout

Reading:

Schwarzlose (2021) Brainscapes,
- Ch. 2: "The tyranny of numbers: why brain maps exist"
- Ch. 3: "How brain maps determine what we see and feel"

Friday 3/24: Long paper due
In 10-15 pages, discuss an issue that is deals with, or is related to, the themes of this course. Prioritize depth over breadth. Detailed examples are essential. Illustrations are recommended. The long paper may build upon the short paper.

COURSE POLICIES

Requirements
The course requirements are as follows.

Short paper - 5 page short discussion paper.
Long paper preview - meeting with the professor to discuss the longer term paper.
Long paper - 10-15 page long term paper.
Weekly question prompts - each week prepare 2-3 questions about the reading to share with the class.

Readings
I have generally assigned two readings per week, and to get the most of this class, you should do both readings. In the interest of good classroom discussion, I have starred (*) one reading each week which the discussion will focus on. You really must read this one!

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