FODOR AND THE INSCRUTABILITY PROBLEM

In his 1993 Nicod Lectures, Jerry Fodor proposed a solution to a certa in version of the problem of 'inscrutability of reference', which prob lem poses a challenge to a certain naturalistic, computational approac h to cognition which Fodor has favoured. The problem is that purely in formational accounts of an agent's mental contents cannot discriminate meanings finely enough. Fodor proposes a strategy of solution which a ppeals to the inferential dispositions of agents to discriminate conte nts more finely. After a brief exposition of the problem and Fodor's b id for solution, I employ three counterexamples to argue that Fodor's proposal cannot succeed.