Mental Iconicity (2026)

ABOUT

Prof. Gabriel Greenberg [[email protected]]
Philosophy 286: Graduate Seminar in Philosophy of Mind
When: Tuesdays 2-5 pm
Where: Dodd 399
Office hours: Wednesdays 1pm, GG office

Writing assignments:

Short paper:

Length: ~5 pages
Primary goal: exposition and strengthening comprehension.
Topic: pick one article we've read, and isolate one key idea or argument from that article to discuss.
Structure: (1) Present and explain the topic idea/argumnet; (2) identify some weakness or challenge for that view; (3) briefly, indicate some way out of the problem.
Note: The challenge in (2) could be a counterexmaple, a lacuna, and missed opportunity, etc.

Long paper:

Length: ~12-15 pages
Primary goal: develop a long-form philosophical thesis.
Topic: pick a topic of your choice from the reading, or from areas that are (more or less) related to the course.
Structure: Your choice. Be sure to have a clear thesis, consider possible objections to your claim, and include multiple detailed examples to illustrate. Prioritize depth over breadth.
Notes:
- Include at least two diagrams or figures, with captions, inserted inline (not at as an appendix).
- Always include: title, date, name, bibliography, and page numbering.
- Always submit papers as PDFs.
- The long paper may build upon the short paper.

Requirements:

Short paper -- Due Sun 2/15
Long paper outline -- Due Tues 3/10
Long paper meeting -- Before 3/20
Long paper -- Due Fri 3/20

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.

1. Iconic and symbolic representation
1/6

Handout

Reading:

Greenberg (2023) "The iconic-symbolic spectrum"

Recommended:

Shimojima (2001) "The graphic-linguistic distinction"
Giardino and Greenberg (2015) "Varieties of iconicity"

2. Teleosemantics
1/13

Handout

Reading:

Introduction to naturalizing intentionality, includes:
- Dretske (2009) "Information-theoretic Semantics"
- Millikan (2009) "Biosemantics"

Recommended:

Garson (2019) "A new kind of teleosemantics" from What Biological Functions Are and Why They Matter.
Shea (2018) Representations in Cognitive Science , Chapter 3: "Functions for representation", and Chapter 4: "Correlational Information"
Neander (2017) A Mark of the Mental, Ch. 5: "Simple Minds"
Gallistel and King (2009) Memory and the Computational Brain, Chapter 4: "Representations" and Chapter 5: "Symbols"
Schulte and Neander (2002) SEP: "Teleological Theories of Mental Content"

3. Language of thought
1/20

Handout

Reading:

Fodor (1987) "Why there still has to be a language of thought"

Recommended:

Rescorla (2021) SEP: "The language of thought hypothesis"
Quilty-Dunn, Porot, and Mandelbaum (2022) "The best game in town: the re-emergence of the language of thought hypothesis across the cognitive sciences"
Anthony "Thinking"

4. Map-like thought
1/27

Handout

Reading:

Camp (2007) "Thinking with maps"

Recommended:

Rescorla (2009) "Cognitive maps and the language of thought"
Camp (2018) "Why maps are not propositional"
Peer et al. (2021) "Structuring knowledge with cognitive maps and cognitive graphs"
Greenberg "Map Semantics and the Geography of Meaning"

5. Analog Magnitude Representation
2/3

Handout

Reading:

Beck (2014), "Analogue Magnitude Representations: A Philosophical Introduction"
Harvey et al (2013), "Topographic Representation of Numerosity in the Human Parietal Cortex"

Recommended:

Beck (2012) "The Generality Constraint and the Structure of Thought"
Carey (2009) The Origin of Concepts
Beck and Clarke (2021) "The number sense represents (rational) numbers"`

6. Iconic Teleosemantics
2/10

Handout

Reading:

Shea (2014), "Exploitable Isomorphism and Structural Representation"

Recommended:

Neander (2017) A Mark of the Mental, Ch. 8 "Causally driven analogs"
Shea (2023), "Organized representations forming a computationally useful processing structure"
Shea (2018) Representations in Cognitive Science, Ch: 5 "Structural correspondence"
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"

7. Symbolic perception
2/17

Handout

Reading:

Green and Quilty-Dunn (2017) "What is an object file?"

Recommended

Pylyshyn (2007) Things and Places, Ch. 1: "Introducing the problem: connecting perception and the world"
Quilty-Dunn (2019) "Perceptual pluralism"

8. Retinotopic maps
2/24

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

9. The problem of retinotopy
3/3

Handout

Reading:

Proponents omnibus, includes:
- Kosslyn et al 2006, "Depictive Representations in the Brain"
  from The Case for Mental Imagery
- Burge 2022, "Iconic Aspects of Perceptual Spatial Representation"
  from Perception: First Form of Mind
Opponents omnibus, includes:
- Pylyshyn (2007) "Are neural layouts always representations?"
  from Things and Places
- Lyons (2022) "Iconic Mental Representations"
  from "Three grades of iconicity in perception"
- Langland-Hassan (2025) "Deep Neural Networks: An Alternative View of Retinotopic Organization"
  from "The The Imagery Debate Exhumed and Reanimated"

Recommended:

SEP: "The Quasi-Pictorial Theory of Imagery, and its Problems"

10. Retinotopy and representation
3/10

Handout (slides)

Reading:

Greenberg (MS) "Neural Images" [Rough draft!!]

Recent work on the iconicity of perception

Block (2022) The Border Between Seeing and Thinking
Burge (2022) Perception: First Form of Mind, Ch. 9: "The Iconic Nature of Perception"
Clarke (2022) "Mapping the visual icon"
Peacocke (2019) The Primacy of Metaphysics, Ch. 2: "Magnitudes"
Beck (2019) "Perception is analog: the argument from Weber's Law"
Beck (2018) "Analog mental representation"
Lyons (2022) "Three grades of iconicity in perception"

Mental Iconicity​2026

ABOUT

SYLLABUS

Mental Iconicity
2026