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From: kjh@seas.smu.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson)
Subject: Reductionist Materialism (was Re: I lie therefore I am?)
Message-ID: <1994Nov11.210534.24348@seas.smu.edu>
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Summary: Materialism is false
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References: <36e5oe$6nc@toves.cs.city.ac.uk> <783521040snz@develco.demon.co.uk> <390dt7$gf9@netaxs.com> <39p329$kno@crl2.crl.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1994 21:05:34 GMT
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In article <39p329$kno@crl2.crl.com>, Andrea Chen <dbennett@crl.com> wrote:
>>It should be possible "in principle" to examine the structure of the 
>>dean's brain and determine through the connections present what his 
>>actual beleifs are but that may also involve understanding the 
>>organization and schema of most of the whole brain. 

Stuff and nonsense.  Non-sense.  Let's examine the hidden syllogism.

Major premise:	Matter and energy is all that exists.  Everything that
		exists is either matter or energy itself, or a direct
		consequence of interaction between different bits of
		matter and energy.

Minor premise:	If matter and energy were all that existed, it would be
		possible to understand and describe everything by
		studying the matter and energy out of which it was
		made.

Conclusion:	Therefore, it is possible to completely understand the
		human mind by studying the functioning of neurons in the
		brain, and the nexus of interconnection of those
		neurons.

The minor premise is true.  Perhaps it is so obvious as to be
self-evident.  However, I contest the major premise.  Ideas exist, and
they are not material stuff, nor the result of interactions of material
stuff.  The fundamental thing about ideas is that they have ABOUTness.
Ideas are about things.  Ideas can be about other ideas.  Matter and
energy cannot have ABOUTness; they just are.

You (and almost everybody else in AI, NLP, MT, and machine learning) are
making a fundamental category mistake.  You are confusing form and
matter.  You are confusing syntax and semantics.  Actually, you are
denying form, and claiming matter is all that exists---denying
semantics, and claiming that syntax is all that exists.

-- 
"Arguing about predestination is virtually irresistible."    --RC Sproul
Ken Hendrickson N8DGN/5           kjh@usc.edu           kjh@seas.smu.edu
