From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!ucbvax!kla!zardoz Thu Jan 16 17:20:15 EST 1992
Article 2697 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Xref: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca comp.ai.philosophy:2697 sci.philosophy.tech:1837 sci.logic:795
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!ucbvax!kla!zardoz
>From: kla!zardoz@sun.com (Phillip Wayne)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.tech,sci.logic
Subject: Re: Penrose on Man vs. Machine
Message-ID: <1992Jan13.182633.8209@sun!kla>
Date: 13 Jan 92 18:26:33 GMT
References: <1992Jan7.105117.7193@husc3.harvard.edu> <1992Jan7.191853.17310@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <1992Jan7.162542.7202@husc3.harvard.edu>
Sender: news@sun!kla
Organization: KLA Instuments, Inc.
Lines: 30

In article <1992Jan7.162542.7202@husc3.harvard.edu> zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:
>In article <1992Jan7.191853.17310@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> 
>pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor) writes:
>
>Understanding is a faculty of grasping with the mind the concept or
>proposition that constitutes the cognitive content of a singular term or a
>declarative sentence, in virtue of expressing which the term or sentence
>can be said to be meaningful, and may denote a certain object or a
>truth-value.  This definition, like all other attemps at real definition,
>is theory-laden, and should be handled with great care.
>

Once again the problem with "understanding" has come up. Let me see if I can
try a more formal method.

Let C be a set of concepts. If C is an empty set, then it is "understood". If C 
is not the empty set, then C is understood only if all of it's components are
understood.

The problem with this definition is that it assumes there is a set of base 
concepts (such as number?) which are "automatically" understood. Perhaps 
only {} is understood, and can we (like in Conway's surreal numbers) build
our concept of understanding on Nothing?


-- 
+----------------------------------------------+
| When you do it to me, it's discrimination    | These are my opinions.
|    When I do it to you, it's AA              |   Oy vey, are they my opinions
+----------------------------------------------+      Zardoz


