Fregean Equivocation and Ramsification on Sparse Theories: Response to McCullagh

Author: Bealer, George

Source: Mind & Language, Volume 15, Number 5, November 2000 , pp. 500-510(11)

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Abstract:

The paper, which begins with a brief summary of my anti-functionalist `Argument from Self-consciousness', has two main goals. First, to show that this argument is not guilty of a Fregean equivocation regarding embedded mental predicates, as has been suggested by Mark McCullagh and others. Second, to show the argument cannot be avoided by weakening the psychological theory upon which reductive functional definitions are based. Specifically, it does no good to excise psychological principles involving embedded mental predicates. Why? Because reductive functional definitions based on the resulting sparse theories are exposed to an interesting new family of counterexamples.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-0017.00147

Affiliations: 1: Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80302-0232, USA

Publication date: 2000-11-01