Millikan, Ruth Garrett

"The study of intention illuminates how subjective experience connects to objective reality."

"Understanding requires grasping not just what is, but why it must be so."

"Intentional states are about their objects in ways that cannot be reduced to physical description alone."

"The power of thought lies in its ability to represent and to guide action accordingly."

"We achieve wisdom through careful reflection on the connections between our thoughts and the world."

"Representation is nature's way of allowing parts of the physical world to grasp the whole."

"Truth constrains the possible contents of genuine thoughts."

"Knowledge is achievement—it is the successful representation of reality through appropriate causal connections."

"Intentionality is the fundamental feature that distinguishes mentality from mere mechanism."

"The meaning of a word is its use in the language."

"Proper names are rigid designators of their referents."

"Mental content is determined by physical states and historical causal relations."

"Intentionality is about representation and how things come to represent other things."

"We must understand how the mind represents the world through causal mechanisms."

"Reference is a matter of historical-causal chains, not mental states alone."

"Externalism about mental content reveals that the mind extends into the world."

"Biological functions are determined by evolutionary history and natural selection."

"Proper function is essential to understanding biological and mental systems."

"Representation requires a system evolved or designed to carry information."

"The twin earth thought experiment shows that meaning just ain't in the head."

"Understanding intentionality requires understanding our evolutionary history."

"Semantic content depends on causal-historical facts about the world."

"Dispositions and capacities are grounded in physical properties and histories."

"Mental representations derive their content from their proper functions."

"Language is a system of representation built on historical-causal foundations."

"Natural teleology without purpose is found in evolution and biological systems."

"The naturalistic study of mind requires understanding its evolutionary origins."

"Content is not intrinsic to any system; it is relational and historical."

"We must abandon Cartesian conceptions of the mind as self-transparent."

"Biological systems carry information through evolved representational capacities."