Millikan, Ruth Garrett

"We must ground theories of mind in evolutionary biology and neuroscience."

"Mental content is inherited, not just inherited in genes but in learning systems."

"Representation without function is empty; function without representation is blind."

"The mind's purpose is to track what matters for survival and flourishing."

"Language is a technology we invented to share and store representations."

"Understanding requires seeing how parts fit together into functional wholes."

"Content is created through the interaction of mind, body, and world."

"We know things because our cognitive systems are attuned to reality."

"Proper function determines which representations are true and which are false."

"Concepts emerge from our embodied experience and capacities."

"The self is a useful fiction that allows minds to model themselves."

"Meaning requires a history; the here and now alone cannot determine content."

"Consciousness without function would be unselectable and unreal."

"Our thoughts mirror the world because we evolved to track its patterns."

"Representation is the natural inheritance of evolved biological systems."

"The meaning of life is found in understanding how organisms represent the world through their interactions with it."

"Intentionality is the mark of the mental - our thoughts are always about something."

"We must recognize that mental content depends on proper causal relations to the external world."

"Language gets its meaning not from internal symbols alone, but from our engagement with reality."

"The mind is not a mirror of nature, but an active participant in constructing meaning."

"Biological systems possess information because they evolved to track the world's regularities."

"Our concepts require the right kind of historical connection to their referents."

"Meaning cannot be purely in the head - it requires proper causal history."

"Teleology in nature is not mysterious; it is simply a matter of evolved functions."

"To understand consciousness, we must understand how systems come to represent things accurately."

"The externalist intuition is correct: content is constitutively dependent on the world."

"Organisms don't just respond mechanically - they act intentionally toward goals."

"Children learn language not through innate principles alone, but through embodied interaction."

"A proper theory of knowledge must account for how minds connect to reality."

"Naturalizing intentionality requires us to think seriously about evolution and learning."