Ruth Millikan
E621038
Ruth Millikan is an American philosopher best known for her influential work in philosophy of mind, language, and biology, particularly her teleosemantic theory of mental content.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Ruth Millikan canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6830437 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ruth Millikan Context triple: [Wilfrid Sellars, influenced, Ruth Millikan]
-
A.
Ruth Sherman Tolman
Ruth Sherman Tolman was an American psychologist and intelligence officer known for her clinical work, advocacy for women in science, and service with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II.
-
B.
Dorothy Ayer Gardner
Dorothy Ayer Gardner was the biological mother of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, originally named Leslie Lynch King Jr.
-
C.
Dorothy Lyman
Dorothy Lyman is an American actress and director best known for her roles on the soap opera "All My Children" and the sitcom "Mama's Family."
-
D.
Frances H. Townes
Frances H. Townes was the wife of Nobel Prize–winning physicist Charles Hard Townes and a partner in his scientific and personal life, known for her support of his career and their shared involvement in academic and community activities.
-
E.
Mary Ware Dennett
Mary Ware Dennett was an early 20th-century American birth control advocate, sex education reformer, and feminist leader who played a key role in challenging obscenity laws and expanding access to reproductive information.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ruth Millikan Target entity description: Ruth Millikan is an American philosopher best known for her influential work in philosophy of mind, language, and biology, particularly her teleosemantic theory of mental content.
-
A.
Ruth Sherman Tolman
Ruth Sherman Tolman was an American psychologist and intelligence officer known for her clinical work, advocacy for women in science, and service with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II.
-
B.
Dorothy Ayer Gardner
Dorothy Ayer Gardner was the biological mother of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, originally named Leslie Lynch King Jr.
-
C.
Dorothy Lyman
Dorothy Lyman is an American actress and director best known for her roles on the soap opera "All My Children" and the sitcom "Mama's Family."
-
D.
Frances H. Townes
Frances H. Townes was the wife of Nobel Prize–winning physicist Charles Hard Townes and a partner in his scientific and personal life, known for her support of his career and their shared involvement in academic and community activities.
-
E.
Mary Ware Dennett
Mary Ware Dennett was an early 20th-century American birth control advocate, sex education reformer, and feminist leader who played a key role in challenging obscenity laws and expanding access to reproductive information.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American philosopher
ⓘ
academic ⓘ philosopher ⓘ |
| academicDegree | PhD in philosophy ⓘ |
| approach | naturalism in philosophy ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Jean Nicod Prize
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Nicholas Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy NERFINISHED ⓘ Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| birthDate | 1933 ⓘ |
| birthPlace |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| concept |
proper function
ⓘ
pushmi-pullyu representations ⓘ |
| doctoralAdvisor | Wilfrid Sellars NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Oberlin College
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Yale University ⓘ |
| field |
epistemology
ⓘ
metaphysics ⓘ philosophy of biology ⓘ philosophy of language ⓘ philosophy of mind ⓘ |
| gender | female ⓘ |
| influenced |
naturalistic theories of content
ⓘ
philosophy of language ⓘ philosophy of mind ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Charles Darwin
ⓘ
Donald Davidson NERFINISHED ⓘ Ludwig Wittgenstein NERFINISHED ⓘ Wilfrid Sellars NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| knownFor |
biosemantics
ⓘ
naturalistic theory of representation ⓘ teleosemantic theory of mental content ⓘ teleosemantics ⓘ work on functions in biology ⓘ work on mental content ⓘ work on reference ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| memberOf | American Academy of Arts and Sciences ⓘ |
| nationality |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| notableWork |
Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
On Clear and Confused Ideas NERFINISHED ⓘ Varieties of Meaning NERFINISHED ⓘ White Queen Psychology and Other Essays for Alice NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| philosophicalSchool | analytic philosophy ⓘ |
| positionHeld | professor of philosophy ⓘ |
| theory |
selected effects theory of function
ⓘ
teleological theory of representation ⓘ |
| workInstitution | University of Connecticut NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ruth Millikan Description of subject: Ruth Millikan is an American philosopher best known for her influential work in philosophy of mind, language, and biology, particularly her teleosemantic theory of mental content.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.