From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!news.u.washington.edu!carson.u.washington.edu!forbis Mon Aug 24 15:40:50 EDT 1992
Article 6619 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!news.u.washington.edu!carson.u.washington.edu!forbis
>From: forbis@carson.u.washington.edu (Gary Forbis)
Subject: Re: Basic definitions
Message-ID: <1992Aug14.091614.12934@u.washington.edu>
Sender: news@u.washington.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
References: <1992Aug10.211239.17308@access.usask.ca> <1992Aug13.215846.23503@cs.brown.edu> <BILL.92Aug13203903@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu>
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 09:16:14 GMT
Lines: 24

In article <BILL.92Aug13203903@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu> bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs) writes:
>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.

I'm not sure I believe things are that bad.  Certainly I can believe I
act in ways consistent with having a hand without having a hand.  I understand
that much of flight systems software is exercised on simulators.  I don't
think such testing leads inevitably to any mystical philosophy.

I think it is enough to accept that the "I" who has the beliefs survives
in spit of any differences between beliefs and actualities.

--gary forbis@u.washington.edu


