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From: jqb@netcom.com (Jim Balter)
Subject: Re: Explanation and Science
Message-ID: <jqbDCrrxs.7xA@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <3voi64$rkb@nntp5.u.washington.edu> <19950803.024433.58@daffodif.demon.co.uk> <807436300snz@longley.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 1995 04:46:40 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:32155 comp.ai.philosophy:31273 sci.logic:13534 sci.cognitive:8816

In article <807436300snz@longley.demon.co.uk>,
David Longley  <David@longley.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <19950803.024433.58@daffodif.demon.co.uk>
>           PHIL@daffodif.demon.co.uk  writes:
><snip>
>> 
>> Scriven, echoing Wittgenstein (cf Philosophical Investigations #31), remarks
>> that a request for an explanation presupposes that something is understood. A
>> correct explanation in any particular case relates the object of inquiry to
>> the realm of understanding of the enquirer. Thus explanation and
>> understanding are context-sensitive - whether it be a scientific explanation
>> or otherwise - rather in the same way as notions like 'simple' and 'exact'.
>> 
><snip>
>
>That's   interesting  .  .  .  understanding,  like  knowing   is 
>intensional,  resistant to substitutivity..(salva veritate),  and 
>context  (content)  specific.  A theme  developed  at  length  in 
>'Fragments of Behaviour: The Extensional Stance'. 
>
>Are  Scriven's  and Wittgenstein's analyses illustrative  of  the 
>point made by Quine that there is no breaking out of the realm of 
>the  intensional  once  one begins using  such  terms?  ('Word  & 
>Object' p.220-221) ?

That follows from the fact that there is no breaking out of the realm of the
intensional once one begins being.
-- 
<J Q B>

