The oil drop experiment the oil drop experiment was perhaps the most famous scientific work of robert millikan s career. The pdf you are reading is an electronic version of a physical book that can be purchased. Millikan was born on march 22, 1868 in morrison, illinois and took a job as a court reporter after he graduated from high school. Ruth garrett millikan born 1933 is a wellknown american philosopher of biology, psychology, and language. On a graduate level covers the issues of the naturalization of intentionality from a weak intentional realist perspective while providing critical but fair to a fault and practically thorough articulation of the intentional irrealisms various positions particularly as based upon. This is the doctrine ruth millikan calls meaning rationalism, and it is one of the central burdens of her important book, language, thought, and other biological categories, to topple it from its traditional pedestal millikan, 1984. Millikan, physics nobel laureate and darwin doubter jerry bergman nobel laureate robert millikan was one of the most eminent physicists of the 20th century. Explaining how meaning and intentionality can arise. Intentionality in a nonintentional world by pierre jacob cambridge university press, 1997.
Millikan studies of the brownian movements in gases resulted in the end of opposition to the atomic and kinetic theories of matter. Naturalizing intentionality ruth garrett millikan university. The puzzle at the heart of the book is sometimes called the problem of mental content, brentanos problem, or the problem of intentionality. Intentionality, mind and folk psychology behavioral and. Fodor and millikan on teleosemantics, philosophical topics 18.
In varieties of meaning, ruth garrett millikan argues that these different kinds of meaning can be understood. Modeling the millikan oil drop experiment the science. A definition designed to capture such a sense of natural purpose was proposed in millikan 1984. Experimental setup of rcl millikans experiment 8 2. Manu kumar khatry, manoj kumar thapa, bhesha raj adhikari, arjun kumar gautam, parashu ram poudel. If so, then it would follow that meanings might properly be ascribed to alife evolutionary robots see below, though not to designedprogrammed systems boden, 2001. Trying to decide which stories to include about robert a. See also millikan forthcoming something has to give. A leading international team of contributors offer fortyfive critical surveys of a wide range of topics. The chamber has plates at the top and bottom that can be charged with a voltage.
Millikan, like dretske, chisholm and brentano, thinks that what. That story is in the book and it explains the reason for the book s title. Intentionality, mind and folk psychology volume 16 issue 1 winand h. Millikans general epistemic stance interpretation or the natural. The millikan oildrop experiment was far superior to previous determinations of the charge of an electron. What has natural information to do with intentional representation.
Collection of problems about rcl millikans experiment. Part iii offers a novel interpretation of the way language is understood and of the relation between semantics and pragmatics. A second influential proposal for dealing with the difficulties left pending by the informationtheoretic approach and for showing that some nonmental things can exhibit intentionality has been ruth millikan s 1984, 1993, 2000, 2004 teleosemantic approach. She was awarded the jean nicod prize and gave the jean nicod lectures in paris in 2002 millikan earned her phd from yale university where she studied under wilfrid sellars.
Where other workers had attempted to measure the quantity by observing the effect of an electric field on a cloud of water droplets, millikan used single drops, first of water and then, when he found these evaporating, of oil. Phenomental intentionality and the brain in a vat on an argument from properties of words to broad content reference, causal powers, externalist intuitions and unicorns. Section 2 introduces the problems 1 of intentionality and productivity. As the name hints, millikans theory explains intentionality in terms that are. Millikan wanted to rise his academic rank, so thats why he decided to research the charge of an electron when measuring the course of charged water droplets, they evaporated too quickly millikan proved that radiation is from an extraterrestrial origin, and named it cosmic rays.
How many electrons must be removed from a neutral, isolated conducting sphere to give it a positive charge of 8. Today, intentionality is a live concern among philosophers of mind. She argues that biology is the firm foundation for human knowledge and introduces a concept called. Millikan, physics nobel laureate and darwin doubter. If there is any truth or propositional requirement here, it is simply that the same kinds of sign are connected to the same kinds of signifieds and that they recur with the same natural conditions of signification or meaning, for example specific periods of time in a specific. Absg11 gatherings in biosemiotics, new york, june 2125. Take, for example, the thought that blossoms are forming. She is the author of language, thought, and other biological categories mit press, 1984 and white queen psychology and other essays for alice mit press, 1995 and on clear and confused ideas. Pdf mental representations and millikans theory of.
Intentionality is the phenomenon of things being about other things, paradigm cases being thoughts and. The british journal for the philosophy of science this book makes a wellinformed, carefully argued and convincing case for its core argument. Curriculum vitae ruth garrett millikan education a. Ann millikan is raising funds for millikan symphony in honor of robert c. Then millikan s name was mentioned and the fellow exclaimed, oh, you mean millikan s school. Pdf enactivists should frame their positive project by adopting a wittgensteinian point of view. Engage your students during remote learning with video readalouds. Control of the electric field in the capacitor 9 5. His goal was to distinguish the mental from the physical. Abstract one of the great outstanding problems in materialist philosophy of mind is the problem of how there can be space in the material world for intentionality. Teleosemantics and natural information john symons. Robert millikan passed away from a heart attack at the age of 85. Natural zing llc is a distributor of 30 core premium organic raw vegan foods b2b, with 250 private labelled products and also giving you access to over 1,200. The book also functions as a good introduction for anyone new to philosophy of mind because armstrong begins with a survey of different views of the metaphysics of mind, including cartesian dualism the idea that we have an immaterial soul that is completely distinct from the body and other important theories, such as behaviourism, the.
The extended use we propose resurrects the idea of intentionality as a medieval notion with philosophical roots in aristotle and etymological roots in the latin verb intendo meaning to aim at or point toward flanagan 1991, p. The most comprehensive collection of its kind, the book includes sixtythree selections that range from the classical contributions of descartes to the leading edge of contemporary debates. The issues surrounding mental content that were intensely debated in the 1980s and 90s. White queen psychology and other essays for alice mit cognet. In that important and fascinating book of 300 pages, he himself sets forth the story of his lifehis schooling, his experiences as a teacher and research physicist, his building of caltech, his work in two world wars, and last but not. Unicepts, language, and natural information isbn 9780198717195 note. Every drop observed will have a charge that is a whole number times the charge of one electron. Teleosemantics and natural information john symons forthcoming in floridi, l. Photoelectric cells are used in burglar alarm, fire alarm and television.
This chapter starts by discussing ruth gerrett millikan s views on psychology as biology in her book language, thought, and other biological categories, where she demonstrates that intentionality is an objective natural feature of humans, and not a subjective cartesian or brentanian one. Millikan s teleosemantic approach rests on two basic assumptions, the first of. Approaches to intentionality by william lyons clarendon. Intentionality in a nonintentional world by pierre jacob 1997 cambridge university press. In 19 he came out with a value of the electrical charge that would serve the world of science for a generation. Additional resources for this book, including chapterbychapter glossaries, flashcards, and.
Intentionality is a natural phenomenon and as such it can come in many forms. Intentionality, consciousness and the systems perspective. History of science and mathematics stack exchange is a question and answer site for people interested in the history and origins of science and mathematics. The best books on the philosophy of mind five books. The study of the mind has always been one of the main preoccupations of philosophers, and has been a booming area of research in recent decades, with remarkable advances in psychology and neuroscience. The behavior of small charged droplets of oil, weighing only 10 12 gram or less, is observed in a gravitational and electric eld. She and paul churchland are often considered leading proponents of right wing i. Millikans contribution to materialist philosophy of mind. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext.
Evolution, error and intentionality tufts university. Millikan understood that the charge and mass of a single electron would be too tiny to measure directly. His book lies in the tradition of ruth millikan s language, thought and other biological categories and fred dretskes explaining behaviour. My grandfather, daniel franklin millikan, was a typical american pioneer of scotch descent, who, after learning the trade of shoemaker and tanner in stockbridge, massachusetts, and after marrying his masters daughter, aurelia pease, decided in 1825 to leave the ancestral millikan farm in the berkshire hills near beckett, massachusetts, and to. Naturalism, evolution, and intentionality 110 letters in canada 2002 university of toronto quarterly, volume 73, number 1, winter 20034 university of calgary press. The book is much more than a report of those lectures. Millikan s contribution to materialist philosophy of mind nicholas shea matiere premiere, 1, feb 2006, pp.
Ruth garrett millikan, naturalizing intentionality. But this sort of move yields too many representations. Thomson studied mathematics at trinity college and also became a prfessor there. What will be the force of electric repulsion between two small spheres placed 1. Thomson had suggested the hypothesis that an electrons mass was at least 1,000 times less than the mass of the tiniest atom. Oxford handbook of philosophy of mind oxford handbooks. Robert millikan s primary contribution to atomic theory came as a result of his oildrop experiment, which measured an electrons charge. Notes on einsteins photoelectric equation and millikans. Even though fife causing smoke tokens could be a law, it is a law that depends fodor, 181. In short, the semantic grounding of concepts is a contentious matter harnad, 1990.
My work with millikan on the oildrop experiment in this personal reminiscence the late author recounts his experiences as a graduate student in the ryerson laboratory in chicago and his contribution to the determination of the electrons charge. Saul kripke, ruth millikan, hilary putnam, richard rorty, and stephen stich, and. In varieties of meaning, ruth garrett millikan argues that these different kinds of meaning. Robert andrews millikan was born on march 22, 1868, in morrison, illinois. Dennett beginning with a general theory of function applied to body organs, behaviors, customs, and both inner and outer representations, ruth millikan argues that the intentionality of language can be described without reference to speaker intentions and that an understanding of the intentionality of thought can and should be divorced from the problem of understanding. Mental representations and millikans theory of intentional content. Written by one of todays most creative and innovative philosophers, ruth garrett millikan, this book examines basic empirical concepts. Or perhaps r is a representation of r just in case the system was designed to react to rs by producing rs. On a representational theory of thought, this thought involves a representation of blossoms forming. The oxford handbook of philosophy of mind presents a guide on the philosophy of mind. Intentionality is a philosophical concept defined as the power of minds to be about, to represent, or to stand for, things, properties and states of affairs. In other essays, millikan clarifies her views on the nature of mental representation, explores whether human thought is a product of natural selection, examines the nature of behavior as studied. Routledge companion to philosophy of information 1. The success of the millikan oildrop experiment depends on the ability to measure small forces.
Gualtiero piccinini june 20, 2011 uncategorized i recently had a conversation with three selfidentified rutgers people two rutgers faculty plus a senior philosopher who visited rutgers in the early 1990s who claimed that at rutgers it is accepted wisdom that psychosemantics was a failure. Each movement of millikan symphony honors an area of bobs work and accomplishment. Robert andrews millikan 18681953 niels bohr library. When the force of gravity is balanced against air resistance neglecting air buoyancy, the oil drop falls down at a uniform speed of v g. Intentionality is the phenomenon of things being about other things, paradigm cases being thoughts and sentences. Mental imagery rutgers center for cognitive science. Millikans contribution to materialist philosophy of mind nicholas shea matiere premiere, 1, feb 2006, pp. The usual discussion explains that the oil droplets must pick up a fixed whole number of electrons as they are sprayed into a chamber. According to millikan, the most proximate normal explanation is the least detailed explanation that cites structural features of the mechanism and local conditions, adds natural laws, and thereby predicts the performance of the mechanisms function thus explaining the selection of the mechanism.
Robert andrews millikan was an eminent american experimental physicist who won the nobel prize for physics in 1923 for his work on photoelectric effect. He was also openly a christian and, although a physicist, expressed in his writings major reservations about not only orthodox. Language, thought, and other biological categories mit. Universally regarded as an important, even brilliant, work, its. Teleological theories of mental content try to explain the contents of mental representations by appealing to a teleological notion of function. Natural sign of x, as defined by millikan 2004 is some y from which you can. But using his famous oil drop experiment, millikan indirectly measured the charge of a single electron and then mathematically determined the mass of an electron using thomsons masscharge ratio brown et al. Millikan is most famous for the view which, in her 1989 paper of the same name, she refers to as biosemantics. This value was accepted for about 20 years, until it was discovered that xray diffraction measurements of n a gave values of e that differed from millikans by about 0. An instructors manual, prepared by lydia volaitis of northeastern university, is available.
Pdf the apparent urintentionality of living beings and the. He went to high school in maquoketa, iowa and received a bachelors degree in the classics from oberlin college in 1891 and his doctorate in physics from columbia university in 1895 he was the first to earn a ph. Rupert in her landmark book, language, thought, and other biological categories millikan1984,1 ruth garrett millikan utilizes the idea of a biological function to solve philosophical problems associated with the phenomena of language, thought, and meaning. In her landmark book, language, thought, and other biological categories. In more recent years, precedence has shifted to the project of naturalizationthe attempt to explain intentional states, states that represent, indicate, or in some other way are about something, in natural terms. The term biosemantics has usually been applied only to the theory of mental ruth garrett millikan is professor of philosophy, department of philosophy. He soon enrolled, however, at oberlin college in ohio, the alma mater of his mother, mary jane andrews. Representation in cognitive science, by nicholas shea. Additional resources for this book, including chapterbychapter glossaries, flashcards. The naturalist challenge here is to show, first, that natural purposiveness can explain the intentionality of explicitly represented purposes, hence that it is associated with aboutness. As an undergraduate, millikan began the typical classics curriculum and particularly enjoyed mathematics and greek. Problems about measurements and data analysis 11 1.
Millikan has also published many articles, many of which are listed and available here. I would warmly recommend ramseys book to anyone working on representation. Others argue that intentionality is evolutionarily based millikan, 1984. Language, thought, and other biological categories, bradford books mit press, 1984. Peirces theory of signs cambridge university press. The idea fell out of discussion with the end of the medieval scholastic period, but in recent times was resurrected by franz brentano and later adopted by edmund husserl. Project muse naturalism, evolution, and intentionality. Sometimes they talk past each other in long series of books and articles, never. Harvey fletcher lorena chipman and i were married on 9 september 1908. Lyons is clearly attracted to some biological basis to intentionality. They are used in industry to locate minor flaws or holes in metal sheets.
Mother nature, of course, or more literally, the long slow process of evolution by. The discrepancy was traced to the value of the coef. Then he obtained various values for q, and is found to be a multiple of 1. Short corrects widespread misconceptions of peirces theory of signs and demonstrates its relevance to contemporary analytic philosophy of language, mind, and science. Languages are not natural codes, but instead sets of conventional codes.
Nicod lectures from 2002, this book focuses on intentionality, combining the wideranging perspective one finds in millikan 1984 see section 3 with the benefit of the high level of. Naturalizing intentionality, in philosophy of mind, proceedings of the twentieth world. Other accomplishments university of alaska fairbanks. Peirces theoryofmind,naturalisticandnonreductive,bearsondebatesoffodor and millikan.
Brentano introduced the term intentionality into our modern philosophical. Measuring the velocity of fall of the drop in air enables, with the use of stokes law, the calculation of the mass of. Pdf enactivism, from a wittgensteinian point of view. Ruth garrett millikan born 1933 is a leading american philosopher of biology, psychology. Biosemantics is a theory about something philosophers often refer to as intentionality. Pdf externalism and internalism in the philosophy of mind. Its motivating mystery is how neurobiological states can have semantic properties such as meaning or reference. Millikans book and construe most concepts, including ontological categories, as. Ruth garrett millikan is distinguished professor of philosophy at the university of connecticut. Ruth millikan s extended argument for a biological view of the study of cognition in language, thought, and other biological categories caught the attention of the philosophical community. Language, thought, and other biological categories. Millikans oil drop if an oil drop with mass m and charge e enters the oil chamber, it falls down freely under the force of gravity when no voltage is applied between the parallel polar plates. Not only is shea developing a naturalistic version of teleosemantics in the spirit of these classic texts.
Medicalsurgical nurses week academy of medicalsurgical nurse appreciation gifts national nurses week 2020 national nurses day quotes. Classical and contemporary readings is a grand tour of writings on these and other perplexing questions about the nature of the mind. Introduction we human beings tend, rightly or wrongly, to explain the intelligent behavior we observe among our fellow organisms by reference to their mental states. The western ontario series in philosophy of science a series of books in philosophy of science, methodology, epistemology, logic, history of science, and related fields. In thinking about the notion of convention, i find ruth millikans 1998 paper. Dretskes 1988 and ruth garrett millikans 1990, respectively. Beginning with a general theory of function applied to body organs, behaviors, customs, and both inner and outer representations, ruth millikan argues that the intentionality of language can be described without reference to speaker intentions and that an understanding of the intentionality of thought can and should be divorced from the problem of understanding consciousness.
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