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From: rstevew@armory.com (Richard Steven Walz)
Subject: Re: Minsky's new article
Organization: The Armory
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994 04:37:50 GMT
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References: <3b19lc$2ds@mp.cs.niu.edu> <3ba3mo$g0f@mp.cs.niu.edu> <3baubn$32a@jetsam.ee.pdx.edu> <3bb15f$nio@mp.cs.niu.edu>
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In article <3bb15f$nio@mp.cs.niu.edu>, Neil Rickert <rickert@cs.niu.edu> wrote:
>In <3baubn$32a@jetsam.ee.pdx.edu> marcus@ee.pdx.edu (Marcus Daniels) writes:
>
>>rickert@cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
>
>>>Keep in mind that people still find
>>>Ptolemaic terminology such as "sunrise" and "sunset" to be very
>>>useful.
>
>>Exactly.  Free will is just like that.
>
>If it is very useful, why deny it exists?
>
>The only thing that does not exist is a particular self-contradictory
>interpretation of "free will".
-------------------------------------------------------
We don't deny that free-will exists, as a useful fiction! As you see, in
metaphysics, even a lie is some variety of truth! This is also true of
semantics. To explain further, we say sunrise, but we know earth rotates
when we say it! It is shorthand! So is sunset, so is "free-will", useful
only in court and when looking for someone to blame!;)
-Steve Walz   rstevew@armory.com

