The Architecture of Cognition ― Rethinking Fodor and Pylyshyn's Systematicity Challenge

In 1988, Jerry Fodor and Zenon Pylyshyn challenged connectionist theorists to explainthe systematicity of cognition. In a highly influential critical analysis of connectionism, theyargued that connectionist explanations, at best, can only inform us about details of the neuralsubstrate; explanations at the cognitive level must be classical insofar as adult human cognition isessentially systematic. More than twenty-five years later, however, conflicting explanations ofcognition do not divide along classicist-connectionist lines, but oppose cognitivism (bothclassicist and connectionist) with a range of other methodologies, including distributed andembodied cognition, ecological psychology, enactivism, adaptive behavior, and biologically basedneural network theory. This volume reassesses Fodor and Pylyshyn's "systematicitychallenge" for a post-connectionist era. The contributors consider such questions as howpost-connectionist approaches meet Fodor and Pylyshyn's conceptual challenges; whether there isempirical evidence for or against the systematicity of thought; and how the systematicity of humanthought relates to behavior. The chapters offer a representative sample and an overview of the mostimportant recent developments in the systematicitydebate.

ContributorsKen Aizawa, William Bechtel, GideonBorensztajn, Paco Calvo, Anthony Chemero, Jonathan D. Cohen, Alicia Coram, Jeffrey L. Elman, StefanL. Frank, Antoni Gomila, Seth A. Herd, Trent Kriete, Christian J. Lebiere, Lorena Lobo, EdouardMachery, Gary Marcus, Emma Martin, Fernando Martinez-Manrique, Brian P. McLaughlin, Randall C.O'Reilly, Alex A. Petrov, Steven Phillips, William Ramsey, Michael Silberstein, John Symons, DavidTravieso, William H. Wilson, Willem Zuidema

Paco Calvo is Department Chair and Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Murcia, Spain. John Symons is Department Chair and Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Kansas.