Jerry A. Fodor (1935–2017)

Author of The Modularity of Mind

35+ Works 1,681 Members 6 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Jerry A. Fodor was born Jerome Alan Fodor in New York City on April 22, 1935. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University. He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1959 to 1986, the City University of show more New York Graduate Center from 1986 to 1988, and Rutgers University from 1988 until his death, when was the State of New Jersey professor of philosophy there. He was one of the world's foremost philosophers of mind. He wrote several books including The Structure of Language written with Jerrold J. Katz, The Language of Thought, The Modularity of Mind, Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong, The Mind Doesn't Work That Way, and What Darwin Got Wrong written with Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini. He died from complications of Parkinson's disease and a recent stroke on November 29, 2017 at the age of 82. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: Jerry Fodor, J. A. Fodor, Jerry A Fodor, Jerry A. Fodor, Jerry A. Fodor, Jerry Alan Fodor, Ed. Jerry A. Fodor

Image credit: Jerry Fodor at his reception dinner on November 7, 2007 during his visit to the University of Maryland. Photo by Pedro Alcocer.

Series

The Language and Thought Series

Works by Jerry A. Fodor

Popular Recent

The Modularity of Mind (1983) 252 copies

What Darwin Got Wrong (2010) — Author — 193 copies, 1 review

The Mind Doesn't Work That Way: The Scope and Limits of Computational Psychology (2000) 178 copies, 1 review

The Language of Thought (1975) 158 copies

Psychosemantics: The Problem of Meaning in the Philosophy of Mind (1987) 121 copies

Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong (1998) 109 copies

A Theory of Content and Other Essays (1990) 83 copies, 1 review

The Structure of Language: Readings in the Philosophy of Language (1964) — Editor — 79 copies, 1 review

The Elm and the Expert: Mentalese and Its Semantics (1994) 69 copies, 1 review

Holism: A Shopper's Guide (1992) 67 copies

In Critical Condition: Polemical Essays on Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Mind (1998) 63 copies

RePresentations: Philosophical Essays on the Foundations of Cognitive Science (Bradford Books) (1981) 63 copies

LOT 2: The Language of Thought Revisited (2008) 63 copies

Psychological Explanation; An Introduction to the Philosophy of Psychology (1968) 53 copies

Hume Variations (2003) 43 copies

Minds without Meanings: An Essay on the Content of Concepts (The MIT Press) (2014) 27 copies

Psychology of Language (1974) 21 copies

The Compositionality Papers (2002) 16 copies

Mente e linguaggio (2001) 5 copies, 1 review

Fodor's Guide to Mental Representation: The Intelligent Auntie's Vade-Mecum (1985) 2 copies

You Can Fool Some of The People All of the Time Everything Else Being Equal; Hedged Laws and Psychological Explanations 2 copies

'The truth is not out there' in TLS 5559, 16 Oct 2009 [review of Michael Tye's 'Consciousness Revisited: materialism without phenomenal concepts'] 1 copy

'Where is my mind?' in LRB 31/3, 12 Feb 2009 [review of Andy Clark's 'Supersizing the Mind: embodiment, action & cognitive extension'] 1 copy

'Is it a bird? Problems with old & new approaches to the theory of concepts' in TLS 5207, 17 Jan 2003 [review of Murphy' 1 copy

'On that bumpy road: our best science is our best account of how the world actually is' in TLS 5348, 30 Sept 2005 [revie 1 copy

'Look!' in LRB 20/21, 29 Oct 1998 [review of EO Wilson's 'Consilience'] 1 copy

Modularity and its generative offenders 1 copy

'The selfish gene pool' inTLS 5339: 29 July 2005 1 copy

'The Trouble with Psychological Darwinism' in LRB 20/2: 15 Jan 1998 1 copy

Representations 1 copy

O problema mente-cérebro 1 copy

Levels of Description & Mental Modules 1 copy

Methodological Solipsism considered as a research strategy in cognitive psychology 1 copy

Modularity of Mind (Continued) & The Language of Thought Hypothesis 1 copy

Holism: A Consumer Update (Grazer Philosophische Studien 46) (German Monitor 30) (1994) 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings (2002) — Contributor — 323 copies, 1 review

Mind Design II: Philosophy, Psychology, and Artificial Intelligence (1997) — Contributor — 166 copies

Materialism and the mind-body problem (1971) — Contributor — 81 copies, 1 review

Wittgenstein and the problem of other minds (1967) — Contributor — 53 copies

Language: Selected Readings (1968) — Contributor — 48 copies, 1 review

Sarunas ar filozofiem (2018) — Author — 2 copies

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Main Associated

5.2.2 Philosophy of Mind (13) biology (24) cognition (12) cognitive psychology (15) cognitive science (85) concepts (19) consciousness (13) ebook (13) evolution (24) filosofia da mente e analítica (15) Fodor (14) intentionality (22) language (34) linguistics (36) mind (28) most-interesting-philosophy (11) non-fiction (33) philosophy (244) philosophy of language (23) philosophy of mind (122) philosophy of psychology (9) philosophy of science (10) Philosophy Psychology and Cognitive Science (9) psycholinguistics (10) psychology (65) Rutgers Faculty Shelves (11) science (25) semantics (10) to-read (42) wishlist (17)

Common Knowledge

Legal name: Fodor, Jerome Alan
Other names: Fodor, Jerry Alan
Birthdate: 1935-04-22
Date of death: 2017-11-29
Gender: male
Education: Princeton University (PhD, philosophy, 1960)
Columbia University (BA, 1956)
Occupations: philosopher
professor emeritus (Cognitive Science)
Organizations: Rutgers University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rutgers Cognitive Science Center
Awards and honors: Jean Nicod Prize (1993)
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
Place of death: Manhattan, New York, USA
Associated Place (for map): New York, USA

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Reviews

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8 reviews

yates9 503 reviews

The Mind Doesn't Work That Way by Jerry Fodor

An important book in that the author raises some significant objections to basic assumptions we make in studying the processes and mechanics of thinking. These assumptions lead to even more significant contradictions in the public understanding of “intelligence” as being something tranferable and objective.

An important book to keep in mind while trying to crack the scientific methods to match investigating cognition.

Feb 28, 2024

2wonderY 1,464 reviews

What Darwin Got Wrong by Jerry Fodor