From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!yorku.ca!rreiner Tue Nov 26 12:31:28 EST 1991
Article 1495 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!yorku.ca!rreiner
>From: rreiner@nexus.yorku.ca (Richard Reiner)
Subject: Re: Is dialectical thought an "informal logic"?
Message-ID: <rreiner.690823427@yorku.ca>
Sender: news@newshub.ccs.yorku.ca (USENET News System)
Organization: York University
References: <5RPRBB5w164w@depsych.Gwinnett.COM>
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1991 15:23:47 GMT

rc@depsych.Gwinnett.COM (Richard Carlson) writes:

>I suspect that one reason for ignoring the dialectic is precisely
>because it cannot be formalized.

This is a preposterously strong claim.  You are saying that there is
something -- "dialectical reasoning" -- which ordinary, finite, human
beings are capable of, and yet which it is NOT POSSIBLE to model
symbolically.  That is, it cannot be modelled symbolically NO MATTER
HOW LARGE AND POWERFUL A FORMAL SYSTEM ONE IS ALLOWED.

We have heard this sort of thing before, from Hubert Dreyfus and his
ilk and from others, and we have learned that the arguments backing up
such claims evaporate when a serious attempt is made to state them
clearly.

Would you care to state yours clearly?


