From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!noao!amethyst!organpipe.uug.arizona.edu!organpipe.uug.arizona.edu!bill Mon Aug 24 15:40:49 EDT 1992
Article 6617 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Basic definitions
Message-ID: <BILL.92Aug13203903@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu>
Date: 14 Aug 92 03:39:03 GMT
References: <1992Aug10.211239.17308@access.usask.ca> <1992Aug13.215846.23503@cs.brown.edu>
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Organization: ARL Division of Neural Systems, Memory and Aging, University of
	Arizona
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In-Reply-To: Allen Renear's message of 13 Aug 92 21: 58:46 GMT

Allen Renear writes:

   > I feel quite sure of things of this sort...
   > -- I believe I have a hand
   >   [ . . . ]
   >
   > I'm not nearly so sure of things of this sort (although I believe
   > them true)... 
   > -- I have a hand
   > [ . . . ]

Yes, this is exactly how Descartes reasoned in his *Meditations*; it
leads inevitably to dualism.

The best counter I have seen is Raymond Smullyan's essay "An
Epistemological Nightmare", which is reprinted in *The Mind's I*
(edited by Hofstadter and Dennett).  Dennett's chapter on qualia in
*Consciousness Explained* explores the issue in greater depth.

	-- Bill


