The Modularity of Mind
E1031532
The Modularity of Mind is a 1983 book by philosopher Jerry Fodor that argues the human mind is composed of distinct, domain-specific, and informationally encapsulated modules.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Modularity of Mind canonical | 6 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T13269467 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Modularity of Mind Context triple: [Jerry Fodor, notableWork, The Modularity of Mind]
-
A.
The Language of Thought
The Language of Thought is a seminal philosophical and cognitive science work by Jerry Fodor that argues for an innate, mental "language" underlying human thought and reasoning.
-
B.
The Discovery of the Mind
The Discovery of the Mind is a seminal work of classical scholarship that explores how ancient Greek literature and thought gave rise to the concept of individual consciousness and self-awareness in Western culture.
-
C.
The Concept of Mind
The Concept of Mind is a 1949 philosophical work by Gilbert Ryle that critiques Cartesian dualism and introduces the idea of mental concepts as dispositions rather than inner ghostly states.
-
D.
Unified Theories of Cognition
Unified Theories of Cognition is a comprehensive cognitive science framework proposed by Allen Newell that seeks to explain diverse mental processes—such as problem solving, memory, and learning—within a single, unified theoretical architecture.
-
E.
How the Mind Works
How the Mind Works is a popular science book by cognitive scientist Steven Pinker that explores human thought and behavior through the lenses of evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Modularity of Mind Target entity description: The Modularity of Mind is a 1983 book by philosopher Jerry Fodor that argues the human mind is composed of distinct, domain-specific, and informationally encapsulated modules.
-
A.
The Language of Thought
The Language of Thought is a seminal philosophical and cognitive science work by Jerry Fodor that argues for an innate, mental "language" underlying human thought and reasoning.
-
B.
The Discovery of the Mind
The Discovery of the Mind is a seminal work of classical scholarship that explores how ancient Greek literature and thought gave rise to the concept of individual consciousness and self-awareness in Western culture.
-
C.
The Concept of Mind
The Concept of Mind is a 1949 philosophical work by Gilbert Ryle that critiques Cartesian dualism and introduces the idea of mental concepts as dispositions rather than inner ghostly states.
-
D.
Unified Theories of Cognition
Unified Theories of Cognition is a comprehensive cognitive science framework proposed by Allen Newell that seeks to explain diverse mental processes—such as problem solving, memory, and learning—within a single, unified theoretical architecture.
-
E.
How the Mind Works
How the Mind Works is a popular science book by cognitive scientist Steven Pinker that explores human thought and behavior through the lenses of evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | book ⓘ |
| academicDiscipline |
linguistics
ⓘ
philosophy ⓘ psychology ⓘ |
| arguesThat |
input systems of the mind are modular
ⓘ
mental modules are domain-specific ⓘ mental modules are informationally encapsulated ⓘ the human mind is composed of distinct modules ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
faculty psychology tradition
ⓘ
nativism about cognitive structure ⓘ |
| author | Jerry Fodor ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| criticizes | holistic models of cognition ⓘ |
| distinguishesBetween | modular input systems and non-modular central systems ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
central cognitive processes distinction
ⓘ
language processing ⓘ perceptual systems ⓘ |
| genre | non-fiction ⓘ |
| hasKeyConcept |
characteristic ontogeny of modules
ⓘ
domain specificity ⓘ fixed neural architecture of modules ⓘ informational encapsulation ⓘ limited central accessibility of modular representations ⓘ mandatory processing ⓘ shallow outputs of modules ⓘ speed of modular processing ⓘ |
| influenced |
debates about domain specificity
ⓘ
debates about encapsulation in perception ⓘ theories of language faculty modularity ⓘ |
| influencedField |
cognitive psychology
ⓘ
evolutionary psychology ⓘ linguistics ⓘ philosophy of cognitive science ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
cognitive science
ⓘ
philosophy of mind ⓘ psychology of perception ⓘ |
| notableFor |
influencing later modularity debates in cognitive science
ⓘ
systematic defense of modularity in cognitive architecture ⓘ |
| proposesConcept | modularity of mind ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1983 ⓘ |
| publisher | MIT Press ⓘ |
| supportsView | cognitive architecture is partly modular ⓘ |
| theoreticalFramework | computational theory of mind ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Modularity of Mind Description of subject: The Modularity of Mind is a 1983 book by philosopher Jerry Fodor that argues the human mind is composed of distinct, domain-specific, and informationally encapsulated modules.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.