Analytic Philosophy

Jerry Fodor

What is Fodor’s language of thought hypothesis?

The language of thought and thinking, as a mental language, is a system of symbols in the brain. Its content are “propositional attitudes” such as: thinks that, desires that, intends that, believes that, hopes that, and so forth. Each attitude has a distinct computational relation to a representation. Computation is information processing based on syntax. As Fodor puts it, there is “no computation without representation.”