Jerry Fodor
American philosopher (1935-2017) · United States · On the map · Academics · Died at 82
Jerry Alan Fodor was an American philosopher and the author of works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science.
Jerry Fodor is read about 88 times a day, in 33 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 104 days, one point a day.
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The idea of modularity of mind was presaged by Franz Joseph Gall's 19th century phrenology movement.
An illustration of multiple realizability. M stands for mental and P stand for physical. The diagram shows that more than one P can instantiate one M, but not vice versa. Causal relations between states are represented by the arrows (M1 goes to M2, etc.).Awards
About this person
His writings in these fields laid the groundwork for the modularity of mind and the language of thought hypotheses, and he is recognized as having had "an enormous influence on virtually every portion of the philosophy of mind literature since 1960." At the time of his death in 2017, he held the position of State of New Jersey Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Rutgers University, and had taught previously at the City University of New York Graduate Center and MIT.
