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Article 1337 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: map@svl.cdc.com (Mark Peters)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Animal Intelligence vs Human Intelligence
Message-ID: <38000@shamash.cdc.com>
Date: 15 Nov 91 23:08:50 GMT
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References: <37311@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Oct24.234823.7560@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com> <37443@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Oct31.235402.12739@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com> <37658@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Nov02.075827.27740kmc@netcom.COM> <37713@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Nov05.08
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In <91Nov15.123414est.8261@telos.ai.toronto.edu> maione@ai.toronto.edu (Ian Christopher Maione) writes:

>In article <37859@shamash.cdc.com> map@svl.cdc.com writes:

>>There is a hierarchical relationship here: concepts are built on percepts,
>>which in turn are built on sensations.  Sensations and percepts are
>>always automatically formed by the nervous system, while concepts never
>>are - they have to be formed by deliberately focusing the mind on reality
>>in a particular way.  

>   The question that comes to my mind here is who is doing the
>"deliberate focusing the mind on reality in a particular way"?  How would
>the formation of concepts be any less 'automatic' than any other process
>going on in the brain?  I may be misreading your intended meaning here,
>but if you're not careful, you will end up merely passing on the problem
>to describing what "deliberate focusing" means.

Well, how did you learn the concept "brain?"  Did you just stare at the
word when you first saw it, and then a few moments later, you had it?
No, you had to learn to regard an animal's body as being composed of 
different parts, externally and internally, to differentiate one particular
internal part (the brain) from the rest, and then to integrate two or
more animal brains into one mental unit on the basis of their similarities.

At every step in the learning process you had to work to grasp the 
necessary facts, you had to direct the focus of your mind to the
subject rather than to something else.  The point is simply that
the correct operation of our senses is innate, but the correct
formation of concepts (and hence the correct operation of our minds)
is not.  We aren't born with knowledge of how to form concepts, nor
with any pre-formed concepts, we have to learn these.

So who is doing the "deliberate focusing of the mind on reality?" - you
are, whenever you think about reality.  We each have the ability to   
alter our level of focus, analogous to our ability to alter the focus
of our eyes.  Just as we can make our view of the words on a computer
screen sharpen or blur, so we can make our thinking sharpen or blur       
(or stop altogether).  We can choose to concentrate fully on the problem
at hand, we can stare blankly out the window ignoring the problem, or         
we can concentrate at any level in between.  

It was exactly this choice to focus the mind that I was referring to in 
distinguishing the sensory/perceptual level from the conceptual level.  
Sense-perception does not require this focus, thinking at the conceptual 
level does.  Having reached the conceptual level, one can use it to
*guide* sense-perception, e.g., as in looking for a particular book in a 
room, but sense-perception itself happens automatically.
--
Mark A. Peters                              ****** ======================
Control Data Corporation                    ****** == "What a save!!!" ==
Internet: map@svl.cdc.com                   ****** == "What an idea!!" ==


