Tutorial #5. Intentionality Naturalised. Discussion Questions

After having read Millikan (1989) Biosemantics, try to think about the following questions.

• What are the main accounts of intentionality?
• What is a representation?
• Do images represent in the same way words do?
• How can our beliefs be about non-existent objects? For example, how can I believe that Santa Claus lives in Rovaniemi (Finland)? How can such a belief be about Santa Claus? How can it be true (or false)?
• How can two distinct beliefs be about the very same object? For example, I may believe at the same time that Catwoman is hot and that Selina Kyle is not hot. But Catwoman is Selina Kyle...
• Can non-mental things exhibit intentionality? Do compasses exhibit intentionality? In which sense?
• Can Deep Blue (the chess computer) perceive a knight fork as a knight fork?
• How do biological states come to have meanings?
• What is the difference, if any, between malfunctioning and getting things wrong by mistaking them? Think about the role of evolution in Millikan’s account.
• What’s the difference between ‘normal’ and ‘normative’? Think about how Millikan uses ‘normal’.
• What does the frog's brain represent when it sees a fly?
• What are the differences between human representations and bacterial representations? Consider Millikan's argument.