From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wupost!uunet!mcsun!uknet!edcastle!aiai!jeff Tue Mar 24 09:56:28 EST 1992
Article 4521 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: mean,meaner,MEANING-est/ intention-and-self the buddhist way
Message-ID: <6420@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 17 Mar 92 23:31:03 GMT
References: <6382@skye.ed.ac.uk> <1992Mar14.001730.550@norton.com>
Sender: news@aiai.ed.ac.uk
Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
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In article <1992Mar14.001730.550@norton.com> brian@norton.com (Brian Yoder) writes:
>jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:
>> In article <1992Mar10.002256.8754@norton.com> brian@norton.com (Brian Yoder) writes:
> 
>> Re: Buddhism
> 
>> >I had not intended to get into a theological argument here, but it looks
>> >like there actually ARE some people here who feel inclined to take this
>> >seriously.  Before we start, would you agree that something being
>> >mystically founded means that it is in fact unfounded?  Or would you
>> >say that potentially you could say about some idea "Sure it's
>> >mysticism, but I think it's a good basis for building my AI machine."?
> 
>> You are in the grip of the fallacy that the origin of an idea
>> determines its truth.
>
>Nonsense!  My objection to mystical ideas is not that they "come from
>mystics",

Don't be so quick to conclude that that's what I must have meant.

>but that epistemologically they are built on a false foundation.

Just so.  You reject an idea because it's built on a false
foundataion -- and not (in such cases) because the idea itself
is false.  What you fail to realize is that truth can come
from error.

-- jd


