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Jerry Alan Fodor (; born 1935) is an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. He holds the position of State of New Jersey Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Rutgers University and is the author of many works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science, in which he has laid the groundwork for the modularity of mind and the language of thought hypotheses, among other ideas. He is known for his provocative and sometimes polemical style of argumentation and as "one of the principal philosophers of mind of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. In addition to having exerted an enormous influence on virtually every portion of the philosophy of mind literature since 1960, Fodor’s work has had a significant impact on the development of the cognitive sciences."〔http://www.iep.utm.edu/fodor/〕 Fodor argues that mental states, such as beliefs and desires, are relations between individuals and mental representations. He maintains that these representations can only be correctly explained in terms of a language of thought (LOT) in the mind. Furthermore, this language of thought itself is an actually existing thing that is codified in the brain and not just a useful explanatory tool. Fodor adheres to a species of functionalism, maintaining that thinking and other mental processes consist primarily of computations operating on the syntax of the representations that make up the language of thought. For Fodor, significant parts of the mind, such as perceptual and linguistic processes, are structured in terms of modules, or "organs", which he defines by their causal and functional roles. These modules are relatively independent of each other and of the "central processing" part of the mind, which has a more global and less "domain specific" character. Fodor suggests that the character of these modules permits the possibility of causal relations with external objects. This, in turn, makes it possible for mental states to have contents that are about things in the world. The central processing part, on the other hand, takes care of the logical relations between the various contents and inputs and outputs. Although Fodor originally rejected the idea that mental states must have a causal, externally determined aspect, he has in recent years devoted much of his writing and study to the philosophy of language because of this problem of the meaning and reference of mental contents. His contributions in this area include the so-called asymmetric causal theory of reference and his many arguments against semantic holism. Fodor strongly opposes reductive accounts of the mind. He argues that mental states are multiply realizable and that there is a hierarchy of explanatory levels in science such that the generalizations and laws of a higher-level theory of psychology or linguistics, for example, cannot be captured by the low-level explanations of the behavior of neurons and synapses. He has also emerged as a prominent critic of what he characterizes as the ill-grounded Darwinian and neo-Darwinian theory of natural selection. ==Biography== Jerry Fodor was born in New York City in 1935, of Jewish descent. He received his A.B. degree (''summa cum laude'') from Columbia University in 1956, where he studied with Sydney Morgenbesser, and a PhD in Philosophy from Princeton University in 1960, under the direction of Hilary Putnam. From 1959 to 1986 Fodor was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. From 1986 to 1988 he was a full professor at the City University of New York (CUNY). Since 1988 he has been State of New Jersey Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Rutgers University in New Jersey.〔Norfleet, Phil. ("Consciousness Concepts of Jerry Fodor" ). Academic Studies of Human Consciousness. Consciousness2007.tripod.com. Accessed 22 March 2010.〕 Besides his interest in philosophy, Fodor passionately follows opera and regularly writes popular columns for the ''London Review of Books'' on that and other topics.〔("LRB: Jerry Fodor" ). ''London Review of Books''. Lrb.co.uk. Accessed 22 March 2010.〕 Philosopher Colin McGinn, who taught with Fodor at Rutgers, described him in these words: "Fodor (who is now a close friend) is a gentle man inside a burly body, and prone to an even burlier style of arguing. He is shy and voluble at the same time ... a formidable polemicist burdened with a sensitive soul.... Disagreeing with Jerry on a philosophical issue, especially one dear to his heart can be a chastening experience.... His quickness of mind, inventiveness, and sharp wit are not to be tangled with before your first cup of coffee in the morning. Adding Jerry Fodor to the faculty at Rutgers () instantly put it on the map, Fodor being by common consent ''the leading philosopher of mind'' in the world today. I had met him in England in the seventies and ... found him to be the genuine article, intellectually speaking (though we do not always see eye to eye)." Fodor is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received numerous awards and honors: New York State Regent's Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson Fellowship (Princeton University), Chancellor Greene Fellow (Princeton University), Fulbright Fellowship (Oxford University), Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.〔Fodor, Jerry. ("Curriculum Vitae: Jerry Alan Fodor" ). Rutgers University. Ruccs.rutgers.edu. C. 2000. Accessed 22 March 2010.〕 He won the first Jean Nicod Prize for philosophy of mind and cognitive philosophy in 1993.〔("Jean-Nicod Prize and Lectures" ). Jean Nicod Institute. Institutnicod.org. 2009. Accessed 22 March 2010.〕 His lecture series for the Prize, later published as a book by MIT Press in 1995, was titled ''The Elm and the Expert: Mentalese and Its Semantics''.〔("''The Elm and the Expert: Mentalese and Its Semantics''" ). MIT Press. Mitpress.mit.edu. Accessed 22 March 2010.〕 In 1996–1997, Fodor delivered the prestigious John Locke Lectures at the University of Oxford, titled ''Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong'', which went on to become his 1998 Oxford University Press book of the same name.〔("Past Lectures" ). University of Oxford Faculty of Philosophy. Ox.ac.uk. 2009. Accessed 22 March 2010.〕 He has also delivered the Patrick Romanell Lecture on Philosophical Naturalism (2004) and the Royce Lecture on Philosophy of Mind (2002)〔("Prizes and Awards" ). American Philosophical Association. Apaonline.com. 2009. Accessed 22 March 2010.〕 to the American Philosophical Association, of whose Eastern Division he has served as Vice President (2004–2005) and President (2005–2006).〔("APA Eastern Division: Officers & Committees 2005–2006" ). American Philosophical Association. Apaonline.com. 2009. Accessed 22 March 2010.〕 In 2005, he won the Mind & Brain Prize. He lives in New York with his wife, the linguist Janet Dean Fodor, and has two grown children. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jerry Fodor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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