Millikan, Ruth Garrett

"Learning is the process of establishing proper causal connections to the world."

"Our concepts are not fixed essences but fluid tools shaped by interaction."

"Consciousness serves the function of coordinating complex responses to complex situations."

"The diversity of life demonstrates the diversity of possible ways of representing the world."

"Truth is correspondence with reality, properly understood through causal networks."

"Mental content is historical - it depends on how our representations came to be."

"The externalist revolution in philosophy of mind reflects a deep biological truth."

"Representation is cheaper than energy expenditure - it allows us to plan without acting."

"Language crystallizes thought but does not create it - thought precedes language."

"To understand any mental phenomenon, ask what function it serves for the organism."

"Intentionality without representation would be purposeless motion."

"The content of our beliefs is determined by the world, not by our neurons alone."

"Social learning extends individual minds into networks of shared representation."

"The proper study of intentionality is the study of how minds meet the world."

"Mental life is not separate from biological life - it is an expression of it."

"Understanding meaning requires understanding the practices that sustain it."

"Thought tracks reality imperfectly but genuinely."

"The intentional order depends on the physical order but is not reducible to it."