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Do nonlinguistic creatures deploy mental symbols for logical connectives in reasoning?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2023

Susan Carey Open the ORCID record for Susan Carey [Opens in a new window]
Susan Carey*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA scarey@wjh.harvard.edu https://www.harvardlds.org/our-labs/carey-lab/susan-carey/
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Abstract

Some nonlinguistic systems of representation display some of the six features of a language-of-thought (LoT) delineated by Quilty-Dunn et al. But they conjecture something stronger: That all six features cooccur homeostatically in nonlinguistic thought. Here I argue that there is no good evidence for nonlinguistic deductive reasoning involving the disjunctive syllogism. Animals and prelinguistic children probably do not make logical inferences.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 46 , 2023 , e267
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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