The Theory Of Mental Content And Thought On Deepening The Research Of Marxist Problem Of Consciousness Content

As one of the focuses in contemporary western philosophy of mind, the theory of mental content is derived from traditional problem of intentionality named Brentano problem, and it also contains some new ideas and thoughts on the essence, structure and internal mechanism of mind in contemporary philosophy. The theory of content is related with the contention between intentional realism and intentional non-realism which are aroused from the scientific position of Folk Psychology. The theory of content touches upon the subject of intentionality, the relation property and the naturalization and causality of mental content. In essence, the theory of content in philosophy of mind is consistent with Marxist problem of consciousness content The basic ideas about consciousness and its content in Marxist philosophy is based on the development of nature science and social science in 19 century and early stage in 20 century. When we reflect the basic ideas about Marxist problem of consciousness content by using the development of contemporary science, we can find some drawbacks and difficulties. At first, the author introduces the evolvement and some main problems of mental content simply, then compares it with Marxist problem of consciousness content, finally, we look for a rational way together to enrich and develop contemporary Marxist theory of consciousness content. This article is divided into four sections.Section 1: The origin and main problems of mental content theory. The author discusses the essence of traditional problem of intentionality and how it was transformed into the theory of mental content under the influence of nature science and social science, then analyses the different attitudes towards mental content among intentional realism, eliminative materialism and instrumentalism, finally, gives rise to main problems the theory of mental content concerns about, including the subject of intentionality, relation property of mental content, the naturalization and causality of mental content.Section 2: Being property and category orientation of mental content. The author points out the problem which relation property of mental content cares for is how to know what mental content is and where it is, then introduces the basic ideas, evidences and difficulties of externalism, internalism and two-factor theory of content separately.Section 3: The naturalization and ultimate essence of mental content. In this section, the author analyses the reasons of naturalization and the problems to be resolved, illustrates some solutions the intentional realists present including the theory of familiarity, the theory of causal co-variance, teleology and conceptual role semantics, then points out their theoretical characters and difficulties they encounter. At last, the author thinks that these ways can not reply to the problem of naturalization because they are on the way to reduction.Section 4: Some thoughts the theory of mental content brings to Marxist problem of consciousness content. In this section, the author presents the basic ideas of Marxist problem of consciousness content, then compares it western theory of mental content and finds that it has some priorities. At the same time, we are also aware that it encounters great challenges in contemporary society. Finally, the author emphasizes that we can reply to the challenges and deepen the research of contemporary Marxist problem of consciousness content if we use the new progress of nature science and the new achievements of mental content theory.