Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
From: mark@dolphsys.demon.co.uk (Mark Lewis)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!peernews.demon.co.uk!dolphsys.demon.co.uk!mark
Subject: Knowledge and reasoning
Organization: Dolphin Systems Ltd
Reply-To: mark@dolphsys.demon.co.uk
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Date: Sun, 12 Mar 1995 22:17:31 +0000
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The whole thing about knowledge is that it seems to  stem from a 
necessity to structure things.  In effect it is the primarily 
Aristotelean methodology of top down analysis that generates this.  
ie. You take a domain (which is clearly definable -since you bound it 
by saying that everything that is not in the domain is everything that 
is outside) and chop it into pieces. 

The problem comes knowing how to chop it up, so we go large to small.  
When we get so small that the piece is either physically indivisble or 
too small to care about dividing up - we are happy.

So we end up with a hierarchical system of subsystems which we consider 
to make up the whole.  This is where the PURELY Aristotlean view of 
things breaks down when looking at the real world.  Computer systems 
are built on the basis of inputs and outputs - but the whole is not the 
same as the constituent parts.  The classical example is animal.  You 
can learn about an animal by chopping it up  but it aint the same as a 
barking dog or a running horse.  So we invented God (to fill the gap) 
but thats a whole story on its own.

My question is what is the consequence for say Information Systems and 
the perception of the real world after realising that Aristotle and 
Plato both had it right (in their own way)?




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Mark Lewis    EMail mark@dolphsys.demon.co.uk                           
                    || Peace on the Planet-------
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