CAN CONNECTIONISTS EXPLAIN SYSTEMATICITY

Classicists and connectionists alike claim to be able to explain syste maticity. The proposed classicist explanation, I argue, is little more than a promissory note, one that classicists have no idea how to rede em. Smolensky's (1995) proposed connectionist explanation fares little better: it is not vulnerable to recent classicist objections, but it nonetheless fails, particularly if one requires, as some classicists d o, that explanations of systematicity take the form of a 'functional a nalysis'. Nonetheless, there are, I argue, reasons for cautious optimi sm about the prospects of a connectionist explanation.