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Article 2371 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Causes and Reasons
Message-ID: <1991Dec23.042043.6880@husc3.harvard.edu>
Date: 23 Dec 91 09:20:42 GMT
References: <16114@castle.ed.ac.uk> <1991Dec19.171507.6784@husc3.harvard.edu> <1991Dec19.205710.2295@arizona.edu>
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Organization: Dept. of Math, Harvard Univ.
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In article <1991Dec19.205710.2295@arizona.edu> 
bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs) writes:

Michael Gemar:
>>*I* uniquely determine what *I* am thinking about.  I am the sole arbiter
>>of the content of my conscious thoughts.  How could it possibly be otherwise?

Chris Malcom:
>>Simple. You could be wrong. People often are.

Mikhail Zeleny:
>>He could be wrong, but not in a way that could be legitimately 
>>corrected by you.

CM:
>>What on earth is the point of this silly and irrelevant ad hominem
>>attack? Oh, sorry, Mikhail, didn't spot your sig.

MZ:
>>The point is to suggest that Michael's beliefs about the content of his
>>conscious thought are incorrigible by an external observer.  Much like your
>>own philosophical misconceptions, but in a different sense.

BS:
>Can't we try to behave like adults here?

Not unless someone pays me to.

BS:
>Michael's beliefs about the content of his thoughts may be incorrigible
>by an external observer (though I am dubious about this), but his
>beliefs about what *controls* his thoughts can't be.  They can't
>possibly be incorrigible because they are obviously wrong.  Even
>Michael will probably realize this if he sits down and thinks about
>it for a while.  If we don't know where our thoughts come from (as
>all of us often don't), how can we possibly have determined them?

In the words of my karate sensei Shojiro Sugiyama: "Concentrate!"

>	-- Bill


`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'
: Qu'est-ce qui est bien?  Qu'est-ce qui est laid?         Harvard   :
: Qu'est-ce qui est grand, fort, faible...                 doesn't   :
: Connais pas! Connais pas!                                 think    :
:                                                             so     :
: Mikhail Zeleny                                                     :
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