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Article 3626 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: onstott@a.cs.okstate.edu (ONSTOTT CHARLES OR)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Plato's Meno and Re: Thought as an evolutionary process
Message-ID: <1992Feb10.214857.25269@a.cs.okstate.edu>
Date: 10 Feb 92 21:48:57 GMT
References: <1992Jan27.021252.1118@memstvx1.memst.edu> <3342@novavax.UUCP> <1992Feb9.215755.1849@vax.muskingum.edu>
Organization: Oklahoma State University, Computer Science, Stillwater
Lines: 47

In article <1992Feb9.215755.1849@vax.muskingum.edu> ra_ashar@vax.muskingum.edu writes:
>
>
>Precisely. Let me share my crazy experience - When I first read Plato's 
>Meno, I found it almost repulsive - what with all that obbscure talk about
>soulism. Now, having spent considerable time being enchanted by neural nets, 
>I can look at Meno with a slightly  different perspective. 
>The notion of people being born with knowledge, and their task in life merely
>comprising of the struggle to refresh their memories seems okay when I
>interpret it as follows: every system(being) that is endowed with neurons has
>the potential to develop and strenghthen optimal connections. Hence learning
>merely involves refining existing connections. 
>Now all I need is to interpret the concept of 'soul' in a 'digestible' fashion. 
>Anyone care to help?

  Well, if you follow Plato's Meno and use this integrated account of
neuralphysiology, then the soul must be the initial state of the 
"weak" connections that are stregthened by learning.

  If you are trying to avoid the religious or dualistic connotations 
that the word "soul" brings along- then JUST DO IT!  If you want
to reduce the soul to nothing more than an initial state of things,
which you would have to do under your above approach, then just
accept it as that.  

  But, this doesn't get us anywhere.  I think the idea of remembering
things as being learning is ridiculous.  Perhaps it is becomming aware,
as in the case of the soul of Carl Jung, but I don't think it can
be learning.  However, learning can result from awareness.  I think
learning is the process of applying already-knowns to new experiences
or discoveries to make sense out of it.  It don't think that learning
is as empty as Grossberg's ART theory would have us believe or as 
a priori as your approach is.

BCnya,
  Charles O. Onstott, III

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Charles O. Onstott, III                  P.O. Box 2386
Undergraduate in Philosophy              Stillwater, Ok  74076
Oklahoma State University                onstott@a.cs.okstate.edu


"The most abstract system of philosophy is, in its method and purpose, 
nothing more than an extremely ingenious combination of natural sounds."
                                              -- Carl G. Jung
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