Bound to be widely read and much discussed, The Elm and the Expert,                  written in Jerry Fodor's usual highly readable, irreverent style, provides a lively                  discussion of semantic issues about mental representation, with special attention to                  issues raised by Frege's problem, Twin cases, and the putative indeterminacy of                  reference. The book extends and revises a view of the relation between mind and                  meaning that the author has been developing since his 1975 book The Language of                  Thought.There is a general consensus among philosophers that a referential semantics                  for mental representation cannot support a robust account of intentional                  explanation. Fodor has himself espoused this view in previous publications, and it                  is widespread (if tacit) throughout the cognitive science community. This book is                  largely a reconsideration of the arguments that are supposed to ground this                  consensus. Fodor concludes that these considerations are far less decisive than has                  been supposed. He offers a theory sketch in which psychological explanation is                  intentional, psychological processes are computational, and the semantic properties                  of mental representations are referential. Connections with the problem of                  "naturalizing" intentionality are also explored.The four lectures in The Elm and the                  Expert were originally delivered in Paris in the spring of 1993 to inaugurate the                  Jean Nicod Lecture series. The Jean Nicod Lectures are delivered annually by a                  leading philosopher of mind or philosophically oriented cognitive scientist. The                  1993 lectures marked the centenary of the birth of the French philosopher and                  logician Jean Nicod (1893-1931). The lectures are sponsored by the Centre National                  de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) as part of its effort to develop the                  interdisciplinary field of cognitive science in France.Jean Nicod series

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