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Article 6471 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Defining other intelligence out of existence
Message-ID: <BILL.92Jul16203801@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu>
Date: 17 Jul 92 03:38:01 GMT
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	<BILL.92Jul14150153@cortex.nsma.arizona.edu>
	<1992Jul15.030619.8736@mp.cs.niu.edu>
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In-Reply-To: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu's message of 15 Jul 92 03: 06:19 GMT

rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:

     Saying that an action is not due to possessing goals is hardly the
   same as saying it is purposeless.  Goals and purposes are not the
   same.  The roof on my house has a purpose, but it has no goals.  Roughly
   speaking, a goal is something you must assign to yourself, while a
   purpose can be an interpretation given by someone else.

Perhaps part of our disagreement comes from the fact that we are using
words differently.  I would say that natural selection has conferred
upon every living thing the goal of reproducing its genes, even though
no living thing (except humans) is able to explicitly formulate that
goal (and even humans are not directly guided by it).

Goals and purposes are not the same but they are closely related.  The
roof on your house has a purpose because it helps you accomplish the
goal of keeping warm and dry.

     One problem with a goal dependent definition is that it requires a
   considerably amount of intelligence to even be able to formulate a
   goal.  By requiring the possession of a goal, you are denying any
   intelligence to creatures too primitive to be able to formulate
   goals.

See above; in my usage of the word "goal" you don't have to be able to
explicitly formulate one in order to possess it.

     Actions do have purposes.  Even the purpose of surviving for a few
   more minutes is a purpose.  But that is hardly a goal.

To me it is.  I was under the impression that I was using the word in
more or less the standard way; if not, I apologize, and I hope this
clarifies what I was trying to say.  

   The purpose may indeed be relevant for intelligence, but since we
   tend to take such purposes for granted, it is not obvious that this
   tells you anything new.

Sorry, I can't figure out what this sentence means.

	-- Bill


