Millikan, emeritus professor of philosophy, university of connecticut. It contained a much abbreviated version of the work on mental representation in language thought and other biological categories. He proved thomsons hypothesis that the mass of an electron is at least times smaller than the smallest atom. Millikan 1989a and neander 1983, 1991 argue that the functions of biology can be. Robert millikan passed away from a heart attack at the age of 85.
Millikans theory is to be understood not as conceptual analysis, but as a. A proper understanding of millikan pdf free download. Robert millikan 18681953 determined the unit charge of the electron in 1909. It contained a much abbreviated version of the work on mental representation in language thought and other biological categories 1984. Millikan oil drop data analysis university of california. Millikans theory of intentionality is not the only philosophical attempt to get over metaphysical. In the case of millikan 2002, it is unclear whether there is a genuine as opposed to. The forces on a droplet falling through a field free space with the terminal velocity v1 f b m air g v1 f g m oil g figure 1 b with u voltage between the plates of the millikan chamber, dplate spacing, for a. In the case of millikan 2002, it is unclear whether there is a genuine as opposed to terminological disagreement with the substance of the preceding paragraph.
Lab report on the millikan experiment michael goerz. Introduction to biosemantics josef behr august 16, 2011 abstract this paper. Then i will discuss the details that distinguish biosemantics from other naturalistic teleological theories. The term biosemantics has usually been applied only to the theory of mental ruth garrett millikan is professor of philosophy, department of philosophy.
He is also known for his famous oildrop experiments that led to his nobelwinning discoveries. The experiments were performed in ryerson laboratory at the university of chicago, where millikan. The time of the pull refers to the time of the oxygen free water, the locale of the pull refers to the locale of the oxygen free water, and the direction of pull refers to the direction of oxygen free water. Biosemantics was the title of a paper on mental representation originally printed in the journal of philosophy in 1989. Congratulations to quest alumni sarah and anahi, recipients of the national charity league scholarship. Biosemantics ruth garrett millikan the journal of philosophy, vol. Ruth garrett millikan utilizes the idea of a biological function to solve. It contained a much abbreviated version of the work on mental.
The experiments were performed in ryerson laboratory at the university of chicago, where millikan was professor of physics. As millikan 1993 sees it, the proper function of the magnetosomes is to coordinate the bacteria with safe oxygenfree water and for that same. This electronstimulated emission is the basis of fluorescent and neon lamps as well as oldfashion televisions. Oil drop experiment the nobel prize in physics 1923. Maddi received a fulbright scholarship to teach english in germany for the 20192020 school year. Thomson allowed us to find out about the existence of negatively charged electrons. Biosemantics is a theory about something philosophers often refer to as. Millikans oil drop experiment the work of people like j. More generally, all it is for the inner state of an organism to represent a feature of the environment is for that state to have the proper function. Biosemantics is a theory about something philosophers often refer to as intentionality. Mental representations and millikans theory of intentional content.
Millikan definition of millikan by the free dictionary. Some who favor teleological theories of mental content claim that mother nature is intentional or purposive. Oxford handbook in the philosophy of mind brian mclaughlin, editor. So if you use as the viscosity you will overestimate the drag force and thus ge t q wrong. Pdf introduction to biosemantics josef behr academia. Millikan 18681953 began his experiments to measure the charge on the electron, e, in 1907. Biosemantics was the title of a paper on mental representation originally printed in the journal of. Ruth millikans great contribution to materialist philosophy of mind was to formulate a detailed. He won a 1923 nobel prize for his measurement of the electron charge. Pdf biosemantics was the title of a paper on mental representation originally printed in the journal of philosophy in 1989.
Millikans view of the proper functions of beliefs is also very similar to that of some versions of the simple teleological theory. Millikan s view of the proper functions of beliefs is also very similar to that of some versions of the simple teleological theory. On millikans theory, bs mean snorffreespace and there is no representation of. Robert millikan, in full robert andrews millikan, born march 22, 1868, morrison, illinois, u. Millikan atomic theory project free download as powerpoint presentation. With the electrical field calculated, they could measure the droplets charge, the charge on a single electron being 1. Let me first characterize a more general class of theories called teleological theories of mental content of which biosemantics is an example. The oil drop experiment the oil drop experiment was perhaps the most famous scientific work of robert millikans career. That story can be found in millikan 1984 chapters 1 and 2. Millikan for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect. Oil airg 5 millikans measurements lead to the result that in order to get correct values, stokes formula has to be used in a. All content in this area was uploaded by ruth millikan on jan 17. Robert millikans famous oil drop experiment, reported in august 19, elegantly measured the fundamental unit of electric charge.
I have built a naturalist description of intentionality on the notion proper function millikan 1984a, 1986a, 1989, forthcoming a. Quest alumni maddi hart earns the fulbright grant for 201920. Millikan oil drop experiment notebooks, notebook two. Robert andrews millikan was born on march 22, 1868, in morrison, illinois. Ruth millikans teleological theory of mental content is complex and often misunderstood. He proved thomsons hypothesis that the mass of an electron is at least times smaller than the smallest. Millikan and harvey fletcher in 1909 to measure the elementary electric charge the charge of the electron. Ruth garrett millikan born 1933 is a leading american philosopher of biology, psychology.
This paper motivates and clarifies some of the complexities of the theory, and shows that paying careful attention to its details yields answers to a number of common objections to teleological theories, in particular, the problem of novel mental states, the problem of functionally false. It contained a much abbreviated version of the work on mental representation in. The time of the pull refers to the time of the oxygen free water, the locale of the pull refers to the locale of the oxygen free water, and the direction of pull refers to the direction of oxygen free. Best known for his oil drop experiment, robert millikan also veri. A power point presentation on the contribution of the scientist robert a. On naturalizing the semantics of mental representation. Teleological theories of mental content stanford encyclopedia of. Millikan and fletchers experiment involved measuring the force on oil droplets in a glass chamber sandwiched between two electrodes, one above and one below. The experiment, a great improvement over previous attempts to. Millikan article about millikan by the free dictionary.
Raabe, reevaluation of millikans oil drop data for small particles. As millikan sees it, the proper function of the magnetosomes is to coordinate the bacteria with safe oxygen free water and for that same reason, they may be said to represent oxygen free. Free fall next consider a sphere of mass m, charge q, and radius r falling under the in. Biosemantics martin abreu zavaleta june 18, 2014 1 false representations millikan, like dretske, chisholm and brentano, thinks that what distinguishes the directness of our mental states from other kinds of directness is the fact that our mental states can misrepresent how things are. Intentionality is the phenomenon of things being about other things, paradigm cases being thoughts and sentences. An evolutionary theory of thought article pdf available in evolution education and outreach 32. Millikan, like dretske, chisholm and brentano, thinks that what. He went to high school in maquoketa, iowa and received a bachelors degree in the classics from oberlin college in 1891 and his. This paper motivates and clarifies some of the complexities of the theory, and shows that paying careful. Oxford handbook in the philosophy of mind brian mclaughlin. Moreover, if my arguments in millikan 1984a are correct, explicit or conscious purposes and intentions turn out to have proper functions that coincide with their explicit or conscious contents. There i had presented a naturalist theory of intentional signs generally, including linguistic representations, graphs, charts and.
He went to high school in maquoketa, iowa and received a bachelors degree in the classics from oberlin college in 1891 and his doctorate in physics from columbia university in 1895 he was the first to earn a ph. Oil airg 5 millikans measurements lead to the result that in order to get correct values, stokes formula has to be used in a more complicated form than when used to calculate the charge q correction to stokes law, eq. The forces on a droplet falling through a field free space with the terminal velocity v1 f b m air g v1 f g m oil g figure 1 b with u voltage between the plates of the millikan chamber, dplate spacing, for a droplet floating in the chamber under the influence of an electric field of field strength eud the following relation applies. Sep 16, 2009 as millikan sees it, the proper function of the magnetosomes is to coordinate the bacteria with safe oxygen free water and for that same reason, they may be said to represent oxygen free water.