4.12—
Summary

This chapter has developed a set of terminology for dealing with attributions of syntactic and semantic properties to symbols. The terminology involves the disambiguation of the term 'symbol' into three sortal terms—'marker', 'signifier', and 'counter'—and a distinction between four ways in which an object may be said to be a symbol (a marker) and to have syntactic or semantic properties. The analysis has already produced a significant conclusion: once we have rendered ascriptions of semantic properties to markers more perspicuous by employing the terminology that has been developed here, it becomes apparent that the logical forms of these expressions involve complex relations with conventions and intentions.

This analysis provides the basis for an investigation of the claims of CTM. The next chapter will investigate the implications of this analysis for the nature of semantic attributions to minds and to symbols in computers. The one that follows it will examine an objection to the analysis

presented in this chapter and articulate an alternative reading of the semiotic vocabulary as employed by advocates of CTM. Afterwards, we shall examine the implications of this analysis for CTM's representational account of the nature of cognitive states and its attempt to vindicate intentional psychology by claiming that cognitive processes are computations over mental representations.