Theories Of Mind Reached By Conscious Introspection

Edelman (1992: 145-6):

My general conclusion, important for all theories of mind, is that given the existence of acts driven by the unconscious, conclusions reached by conscious introspection may be subject to grave error. In other words, Cartesian incorrigibility is incompatible with the facts. Descartes, an adult genius with mastery over language, did not take several things into account. The first is the developmentally determined nature of higher-order consciousness. (Recall that French babies, even gifted ones, are unlikely to assert, "Je pense, donc je suis.") The second is that his linguistically based consciousness is not self-sufficient and beyond doubt. Given that it is linguistic, it is always in dialogue with some "other," even if that interlocutor is not present. The third is that unconscious mechanisms block and intervene with what we consider to be transparent and obvious lines of thought.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, Chomskyan Formal Linguistic Theory is couched in terms of the Cartesian res cogitans, and concerned with modelling knowledge of language.  The data on which knowledge of language is theorised are instances of such knowledge, namely: intuitions about language gained through introspection.