I’ve been struggling to understand the arguments that surround representation in the philosophy of mind. I have several good references but it doesn’t seem to have helped much.  I keep running across words that seem to make absolutely no sense in the context of their use. Of course I realize that this is because the philosopher in question has taken a perfectly good English word and made it do some other work entirely. At best the word is tangentially related to its original use, and in fact that seems to make it worse for me. I read a passage and go — “WTF” does that mean? Then I reread it and realize that I must not really understand what he/she meant by that particular word. Words like “content,” I mean we all know what that means right? Nope.

Irritating.

So yesterday I went to the central public library where I figured they would have introductory texts on a variety of philosophical topics. Yes!

I found a “Representation 101.”  So today I am reading that and making little flash cards with vocabulary. Just like I did when I learned to read French.

Hopefully by the time I finish that I will be able to forgo the WTF experience when reading the other bits and bobs.