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Connectionism and the Philosophy of Mind pp 281–308Cite as

The Constituent Structure of Connectionist Mental States: A Reply to Fodor and Pylyshyn

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Part of the book series: Studies in Cognitive Systems ((COGS,volume 9))

Abstract

The primary purpose of this article is to reply to the central point of (1988) critique of connectionism. The direct reply to their critique comprises Section 2 of this paper. In short, I argue that Fodor and Pylyshyn are simply mistaken in their claim that connectionist mental states lack the necessary constituent structure, and that the basis of this mistake is a failure to appreciate the significance of distributed representations in connectionist models. Section 3 is a broader response to the bottom line of their critique, which is that connectionists should re-orient their work towards implementation of the classical symbolic cognitive architecture. I argue instead that connectionist research should develop new formalizations of the fundamental computational notions that have been given one particular formal shape in the traditional symbolic paradigm.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Paul Smolensky

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  1. Paul Smolensky
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Memphis State University, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

    Terence Horgan  & John Tienson  & 

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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Smolensky, P. (1991). The Constituent Structure of Connectionist Mental States: A Reply to Fodor and Pylyshyn. In: Horgan, T., Tienson, J. (eds) Connectionism and the Philosophy of Mind. Studies in Cognitive Systems, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3524-5_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3524-5_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5559-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-3524-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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