Philosophy of Mind Seminar (Friday - Week 9, TT25)

Abstract: In one sense, to call something a map is to specify what kind of information it carries or what kind of content it has. In another sense, to call something a map is to imply that it carries information in a distinctive kind of way or with a distinctive representational format. My concern is with this second sense and with the various ways in which mental representations can have a format that is interestingly map-like. Some recent authors are quite liberal about what it takes for a representation to be map-like, but I think that a more restrictive view here makes it possible to ask and answer interesting cognitive scientific questions and should open avenues of new research.