Talk:Jerry Fodor

Absence of Fiona Cowey

Fiona Cowey's book, WHAT'S WITHIN (1999), was largely aimed at reviving old-school empiricism of the Lockean sort. I'm simplifying greatly, but she saw Fodor and Chomsky as the chief rationalist innatist threats to her neo-Lockean project and devoted much of the book to a sweeping assault on Fodor in particular. It inspired a lengthy retort from Fodor, sharply worded enough to excite a stir in academia at the time. https://ruccs.rutgers.edu/jerry/26-personal-sites/jerry-fodor/277-doing-without-what-s-within-fiona-cowie-s-critique-of-nativism I find it very odd that none of this is mentioned. I inserted a few words under "Criticism" in this article, but it was reverted. I'm not sure why, but perhaps it needs further development. Volunteers? Ideas? --Christofurio (talk) 19:46, 18 September 2018 (UTC)

Cowie, BTW, is a professor at the California Institute of Technology. Her critique of contemporary innatists began life as a PhD dissertation.

Better late than never, I guess. I've added a brief section on Fodor vs Cowie. At least it's there and properly cited. Plenty of scope for others to extend it. Oh, and Fiona Cowie's now bluelinked. Chiswick Chap (talk) 14:35, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

GA concerns

I am concerned that this article no longer meets the good article criteria. Some of my concerns are outlined below:

• There are lots of uncited statements, including entire paragraphs.
• There's not much information about his academic career or personal life.
• There are some questionable sources, like ref 36: whyevolutionistrue.com

Is anyone willing to address these concerns, or should this go to WP:GAR? Z1720 (talk) 03:39, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

GA Reassessment

Jerry Fodor

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch article reassessment page • GAN review not found

Result: Kept. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 20:56, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

There are lots of uncited statements, including entire paragraphs. There's not much information about his academic career or personal life. There are some questionable sources, like ref 36: whyevolutionistrue.com. Z1720 (talk) 19:36, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

I'll take a look at this one. Chiswick Chap (talk) 20:57, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

The use of whyevolutionistrue.com is just to quote the definitely-notable Jerry Coyne so the source is fine for that purpose.

Keep: I've done a lot of tidying-up, have added multiple sources, and have rewritten quite a bit. The limited detail on personal life and career reflect the sources, which all focus on his philosophy. Chiswick Chap (talk) 11:45, 10 February 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.