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Article 3321 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: les decrets du roi de soleil
Summary: que le bon dieu vous benisse de sa bite fleurie
Message-ID: <1992Jan31.000712.8292@husc3.harvard.edu>
Date: 31 Jan 92 05:07:10 GMT
References: <6523@pkmab.se> <1992Jan28.122457.8161@husc3.harvard.edu> <koboi4INNa3n@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
Organization: Dept. of Math, Harvard Univ.
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In article <koboi4INNa3n@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> 
silber@rug.Eng.Sun.COM (Eric Silber) writes:

>In article <1992Jan28.122457.8161@husc3.harvard.edu> Mikhail Zeleny,
> sa majeste, le roi, a decrete:

ES:
>Decret du roi au sujet de la DENOTATION:
>----------------------------------------
>    ( Le signe du roi:  Dieu et mon Doigt )

MZ:
>If, on one hand, one identifies the neural pulses as purely denotative
>signs, ones that refer without expressing, one would be forced to postulate
>a causal relation in virtue of which these signs denote, stipulating that
>this causal relation is itself entirely immanent in nervous activity, in
>direct contradiction to the fact that our language, allegedly founded
>solely on such nervous activity, has no trouble referring to objects and
>phenomena that occur outside of the latter.  For, on one hand, if an entity
>can be said to refer, the mechanism of such reference must be taken as
>being wholly within the provenance of the entity in question, to the extent
>that we are justified in ascribing the reference to the said entity, rather
>than to the extrinsic factors of its relation to its environment; on the
>other hand, once we reject solipsism, we are forced to infer an external
>reality of potential denotata, unconnected to our putative subject in any
>manner that can be wholly subsumed by it.

ES:
>Decret du roi au sujet de la CONNOTATION:
>-----------------------------------------

MZ:
>On the other hand, should one assume that neural pulses are connotative
>signs, which refer by virtue of expressing an intensional meaning, then
>such meanings, by the above observation, must be entirely captured in the
>physical states of the brain.  Now, as I have argued elsewhere on the
>Putnam thread, it's well known that intensions, once admitted, bring in a
>transfinite hierarchy thereof; in other words, on the connotative theory,
>reference depends on the grasp of (and, under the reductive materialist
>assumption, physical embodiment of) meanings, which depend on meanings of
>meanings, which in turn depend on meanings of meanings of meanings, and so
>on.  For at each intensional level it is reasonable to interpret the
>concept as yet another sign, asking what is the factor in virtue of which
>it succeeds in referring to an object; in other words, it does us no good
>to argue that in practice a brain or a computer only uses a finite initial
>segment of the intensional hierarchy, for the question of the nature of
>reference will only reappear on the highest admitted level thereof.  On the
>assumption that the brain, like a computer, is a finite state automaton,
>this amounts to a reductio ad absurdum of materialist semantics.  Moreover,
>as is well-known, classical model-theoretic semantics is incapable of fully
>characterizing reference, and ipso facto it is incapable of sufficiently
>constraining any derived operational criteria that purport to implement the
>AI notion of success of reference.  Thus, if I am right, AI projects of
>creating a machine capable of signifying independently of its creator,
>surely a prerequisite for machine intelligence, are doomed to failure.

ES:
>--- fin de decrets ----------------------------------------------------
>
>In DENOTATION, as I understand the royal decrees,
>A is linked to B, formally under the influence of an exterior causal-relation, 
>wheresas in CONNOTATION the linking function is , itself, expressing meaning.
>The insurmountable problem of infinite recursion when traversing intensional
>links has been propounded by H.R.H.  Why cannot this problem be dispensed with
>by appeal to a concept of "delayed computation" within which meanings may
>be embedded in potentially infinite recursions, which in practice, the
>cogitator is never called upon to carry to a conclusion?   
>The computation always stops at a sufficient intermediate result.

It's all explained above, but I feel generous today, so I'll reiterate.
The question of "In virtue of what does the meaning mean?" must be posed at
each level of the intensional hierarchy.  The reason for the infinite
regression consists in the fact that the representational function of the
sign is taken to be dependent on its expressive capacity, or on some sort
of direct connection to the object it denotes.  The cogitator's awareness
(or, if you wish, computation) of each member of the infinite hierarchy of
meanings is never an issue; on the other hand, the meaning's residence (in
some intelligible sense of the term) in his mind (or whatever physical
structure is supposed to pass for such) surely is.

`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'
: 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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