Symbolic Representation
Dretske just doesnât agree that the Pioneer 10 space probe plate symbols will mean anything to any alien life. We find it easy to understand because we have the context and we live on this planet
What sort of things can be representations?
- Words/pictures/numbers/diagrams
- State of mind, can represent almost anything at all
What sort of things can be objects of representations
- Almost anything (physical objects, sentences, numbers, moods, feelings, emotions, non-existent things)
- Pictures represent by resemblance â derivative intentionality. This is the âresemblance theory of pictorial representationâ, or the âresemblance theoryâ
X represents Y â suggests that representation is a relation between two things
Is there a basic type of representation underlying everything else? Crane says mental representations are the most basic level.
We canât use pictures as they represent by resemblance. When we try to represent the difference between ⊠and âŠ, if ⊠then âŠ, and either ⊠or ⊠in pictures, we draw a complete blank. There just seems no way of doing it.
Words donât work either; they represent by convention (see terminology). Same words in same context mean the same thing to different people
All other kinds of representation all depend on mental representations in order to work
Mental representations are either naturalistic or conceptual
- naturalistic â matter of correlation, âthese spots mean measlesâ, spots are a reliable indicator of measles
- conceptual â âthis read light means stopâ, matter of convention, connection is arbitrary
Related thought experiments: Brains in a Vat, Twin Earth Argument