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Article 3813 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Determinism precludes truth?
Message-ID: <1992Feb17.224820.7895@spss.com>
Date: 17 Feb 92 22:48:20 GMT
References: <407@tdatirv.UUCP> <1992Feb12.205814.75156@spss.com> <417@tdatirv.UUCP>
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In article <417@tdatirv.UUCP> sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) writes:
>However, what I was suggesting, very tentatively, was that real-world
>ecosystems ae so complex, and contingent, and changeable that by and
>large only true beliefs are actually useful (to the extent that they
>contribute to reproductive success).

I suppose it's not fair to criticize a tentative suggestion, but a few
problems spring to mind.

1. Human beliefs are so various, not to say rococo, that it would seem hard
to maintain that the most useful beliefs also tend to be true.

Most ideological systems, for example, manifestly help the believer,
by providing a meaning to life, a framework for thought, a community of
fellow believers; whether the ideology is true or not may be the least of
the factors which contribute to its usefulness.

2. Your theory should address more than mere reproductive success, since
it's hard to see this applying to beliefs at all except in the very long
term.  If Chomsky's innatism superseded behaviorist theories of language,
this was not because Chomsky's followers reproduced more efficiently.

3. Experience is awfully careless about the details of belief.  A belief
that a certain swamp fosters malaria-carrying mosquitoes, and a belief that
the swamp is inhabited by demons, might be equally useful to the believer.


