Science is constantly advancing. Some scholars and authors, however, are more influential than others in making this happen and leave a legacy of knowledge that is difficult to compare. This is the case of Jerry Fodor, a renowned American philosopher and psycholinguist, who died in 2017 .

In this article we will briefly review his biography and learn about his contributions in the field of cognitive sciences. We will talk about the contributions he made in different fields of study and explain what his most outstanding work consists of: “La modularidad de la mente” (1983).

Jerry Fodor: Who was it?

Jerry Fodor was an American philosopher, psycholinguist, scientist and university professor, becoming a professor of philosophy. He was born on April 22, 1935 in New York, and died on November 29, 2017 also in New York, at the age of 82.

Fodor, besides being a philosopher and psycholinguist, was a great student of the human mind . He proposed an important theory in psychology: the theory of the modularity of the mind, which postulates that the mind is divided into compartments with specific functions, and which we will see later on.

In addition, Jerry Fodor was one of the founders of Functionalism, an important current in psychology, along with other authors such as: William James, James R. Angell, and John Dewey.

Trajectory

Jerry Fodor studied philosophy, and began developing his work in the 1960s. Some of his collaborators consider Fodor as the creator of the “philosophy of psychology”, and his contributions and knowledge, as we will see later, were especially between these two disciplines.

In the early 1960s, Fodor began working as a professor of philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), on the staff of Noam Chomsky, a leading American linguist. He worked at MIT until 1986.

Thanks to his work, dedication and career, Jerry Fodor became a professor of philosophy in New Jersey, at Rutger University .

Functionalism

One of Jerry Fodor’s highlights was his relationship with functionalism; Fodor is considered one of the fathers of functionalism in psychology. This philosophical current postulates that mental life and behavior have the fundamental purpose of allowing us to adapt to the environment. Furthermore, it considers that mental processes are mediating functions between sensory inputs and motor outputs.

On the other hand, functionalism allowed the development of other theories and psychological currents.

Works and contributions

Jerry Fodor’s work is extensive and is translated into a large number of works; among them, he has more than a dozen books , many of them with a clearly informative tone. He also wrote about thirty publications for “London Review of Books”, a well-known British literary and political magazine.

Fodor’s work focused on various areas, fields and disciplines, such as linguistics, psychology, semiotics, logic, artificial intelligence and computer science, among others.

Cognitive Science

One of the most important things we should know about this philosopher of the mind is that his contributions helped to create cognitive science, a relatively modern discipline that deals with the scientific study of the mind and its processes.

Specifically, Fodor made outstanding contributions in the field of philosophy and psychology ; he focused especially on the theories that postulate a modularity of mind. These theories, which we will see later on, propose that the mind is divided into certain functions, and that each of them is highly specialized; all of them, moreover, although independent, are related to each other.

On the other hand, Jerry Fodor also delved into the philosophy of language, a branch of philosophy that studies language itself through its nature, meaning and relationship to thought.

Theory of the modularity of mind

To elaborate his work, Jerry Fodor followed a theoretical orientation centered on the information processing (IP) paradigm . Through his vision, and as we have already mentioned, he elaborated one of his most important works: “The Modularity of Mind”, dated 1983.

This work shows the influence that Franz Joseph Gall, the German physiologist who founded Phrenology (a pseudoscience that establishes a relationship between the shape of the skull and the features and personality traits) had on him.

Characteristics of the theory

The theory of the modularity of the mind proposes a division of the mind into two types of systems: input systems (the so-called input analyzers, which are modular) and central systems.

The input systems transfer the information to the central systems so that they can process it . According to Jerry Fodor’s theory, only input systems can be tested empirically (because they are modular), as opposed to central systems (which are not).

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But how does the human mind work according to Fodor? In his theory of the modularity of the mind, he believes that the mind is divided into various innate and compartmentalized subsystems. Each subsystem develops a specific function: for example we can talk about language, mathematical ability, musical ability, etc.

Fodor adds in his theory that these functions and mental faculties work in a similar way as computers do, through abstract algorithms.

Science and Technology

Another interesting fact about this philosopher is his relationship with science and the use of technology . Thus, Jerry Fodor was guided by technology and computer science to talk about the human mind and the brain. Fodor believed that the brain could be studied very well thanks to technology, but always to a certain extent, where the mind became abstract and imprecise.

Thus, Fodor, through his contributions, attempted to answer the oldest questions of human cognition and mind functioning, through the technology and computing of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Recognition and death

Jerry Fodor obtained a series of awards throughout his academic and professional career . Some of them were: the Guggenheim Scholarship (in 1972), and a little later the Jean Nicod Prize (in 1993).

Fodor died in 2017 at the age of 82 in his hometown of New York as a result of his Parkinson’s disease and a stroke. His legacy, however, remains and is likely to remain for many decades to come. The mark he has left on the field of psychology and philosophy is undeniable.

Bibliographic references:

  • Fodor, J. A. (1983). The Modularity ofMind. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Morata, 1986.

  • Fox, M. (2017). Jerry A. Fodor, Philosopher Who Plumbed the Mind’s Depths, Dies at 82.

  • García-Albea, J. E. (2003). Fodor y la modularidad de la mente (twenty years later). Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Anuario de Psicología, 34(4): 505-571.