The Neural Ingredients for a Language of Thought are Available

The classical notion of a ‘language of thought’ (LoT), advanced prominently by the philosopher Jerry Fodor, is an influential position in cognitive science whereby the mental representations underpinning thought are considered to be compositional and productive, enabling the construction of new complex thoughts from more primitive symbolic concepts. LoT theory has been challenged because a neural implementation has been deemed implausible. We disagree. Critical ingredients needed for a neural implementation of a LoT have in fact been demonstrated in the hippocampal spatial navigation system in rodents and other animals. We show that cell types found in spatial navigation – border cells, object cells, head-direction cells, etc. – provide key types of representations and computations required for the LoT, underscoring its neurobiological viability.