The Syntax of the Mind

Abstract

Those who would introduce mentalistic terms into the explanation of behavior need to recognize both the syntactical and the semantic problems involved in such explanations. To be fruitful, any set of explanatory terms must have both a grammar and a lexicon for their proper use. If a theorist emphasizes semantics at the expense of syntax, then his explanatory terms cannot contribute substantially to any explanation for which they might be invoked, no matter how firmly the terms are anchored semantically. on the other hand, if a theorist emphasizes syntax at the expense of semantics, then the theory may have considerable formal elegance and internal consistency but be worthless for lack of empirical testability. A model of the mind is described which illustrates this latter point.