DESPRE MODULARITATE. CÂTEVA CLARIFICĂRI CONCEPTUALE

Written by Oana BENGA on 15 December 2006. Posted in Special issue: Social, Cognitive And Neural Perspectives, Guest Editors: Thea IONESCU, Oana BENGA, Volume VII, Nr. 2

ABSTRACT

This study intends to reconsider the concept of modularity twenty years later after Fodor's (1983) seminal work. Facing the contradictory data from neuroscientific and developmental research, there seem to be two options: either to give up modularity, or to sacrifice its "strong" version and accept refinements. We want to argue that: 1) Fodor's theory has had an heuristic value, reorienting research on domain-specific development and functioning; 2) nowadays, the concept of modularity can survive only inside a multilevelar analysis; 3) even this kind of analysis has to accept a continuum from innate to acquired modularity,; 4) also a continuum is needed regarding the "modularity gradient" that a certain computation or structure has; 5) "second-order" sources (like handbooks), often "fictionalize" the originary results, therefore any assumptions made on this basis have innerent limits.

KEYWORDS: modularity, domain specificity, levels of analysis