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Article 4041 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: dlyndes@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (David Lyndes)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: making sense of eliminative materialism
Message-ID: <1992Feb26.173246.12306@aio.jsc.nasa.gov>
Date: 26 Feb 1992 17:32:46 GMT
References: <1992Feb21.200219.3773@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1992Feb23.001700.19963@psych.toronto.edu> <1992Feb25.181424.14392@aio.jsc.nasa.gov> <1992Feb25.233842.16198@psych.toronto.edu>
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[Christopher Green]

|> I tend to agree with you, but this is one of those half-empty/half-full
|> problems. Everytime you show me (well, not ME, but, say Stich or Sejnowski
|> or the Churchlands) an example of a good prediction, they'll show you a
|> bad one. Granted, the want-can-do school currently makes better global
|> predictions than any other [...]


I agree that we can match good vs. bad predictions.  But if a theory
is used to make predictions, and the success rate of the predictions
is better than one would expect from a "random prediction generator", then
its very success is a datum deserving explanation.  If another theory
is being set up as its successor, it is incumbant on the successor
to provide that explanation.  That was the 1st point I was trying to
make.

-- 
+-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| David K. Lyndes                     | "I assure you that all reasonable     |
| Barrios Technology                  |  precautions have been and are being  |
| email: dlyndes@deltahp.jsc.nasa.gov |  taken." - General Margrave           |
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| The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer nor of God. |
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