The Brains Blog

        Styles of Rationality was written 20 years ago, well prior to any thoughts of   (unicepts of) unicepts.  The question of Hurley and Nudds’ book Rational Animals? was whether non-human animals were rational in any sense.  I would have to think through that again now. It would be important not …

Alison Springle, University of Miami Ruth’s second post echoes the key themes of one of my favorite essays: Ruth’s “Styles of Rationality” (Ch. 4 of Hurley & Nudds 2006 Rational Animals?). A key move Ruth makes in that essay is to shift our conception of practical reasoning from the Aristotelian …

Ruth Millikan, University of ConnecticutKarl Popper spoke truly of the unique and transformative human capacity to “let our hypotheses die in our stead.” Though not his intention, Herbert Terrace has recently presented us with evidence suggesting that a more basic capacity on which this capacity rests is also unique to …

If offered ten more years to think about these matters with someone, give me Nick Shea.  (And let me very strongly urge Nick’s recent book Concepts at the Interface!! (Oxford University Press. Open Access 2024) [“Unicepts at the interface’??] I am ashamed how little I now know of contemporary developments …

Nick Shea, Institute of Philosophy, University of London I was delighted to be asked to write a commentary on the first of Ruth Millikan’s Brains Blog posts on her oeuvre. Having made important and influential contributions to many areas of philosophy of mind and language, I am especially pleased that …

Unicepts Ruth Millikan, University of Connecticut Proposed in Beyond Concepts; Unicepts, Language and Natural Information (Millikan 2017, Oxford UP) is that many of the roles traditionally thought of as played by concepts are played instead by “unicepts.” Supporting this is the claim that most kinds recognized in common life and …