From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!emory!gwinnett!depsych!rc Sun Dec  1 13:06:44 EST 1991
Article 1762 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rc@depsych.Gwinnett.COM (Richard Carlson)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Is dialectical thought an "informal logic"?
Message-ID: <6JB7BB2w164w@depsych.Gwinnett.COM>
Date: 29 Nov 91 12:36:52 GMT
References: <39953@dime.cs.umass.edu>
Lines: 35

yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken) writes:

> In article <Z1u3BB1w164w@depsych.Gwinnett.COM> rc@depsych.Gwinnett.COM (Richa
> >erwin@trwacs.UUCP (Harry Erwin) writes:
> >
> >> In my experience, dialectical thought is a non-mathematical approach to
> >> non-linear systems theory. Most of the rules can be reformulated in
> >> topological terms.
> >
> >You are probably right.  On pp 665-666 of _Goedel, Escher, Bach_
> >Hofstadter describes an experience in which there was a "fusion"
> >[my quotes] or "symbolic recombination" [his quotes] in his mind
> >which put together two opposing ideas.  He describes the
> >subjective experience in some detail.  On p 667 he talks about
> >ideas mapping onto each other, which sounds topological and makes
> >some sense.  In fact this might be the first experiential account
> >of "synthesis" or "sublation" with an attempt to adumbrate some
> >possible ways in which it might be formalized.
> 
> For an equally nonsensical treatment of the topic, try "On Contradiction"
> by the late, and barely lamented, Chairman Mao. 

You didn't think Hofstadter's account was any good?  Or is it that
you think dialectical thinking is inherently flawed?  (Last night
I watched a discussion between psychologist Jeffrey Mishlove, the
host of PBS's _Thinking Allowed_ and a biologist named Rupert
Sheldrake.  Sheldrake argued that "creativity" involved the
"synthesis" of "opposing" "ideas."  Hmm, I thought, another
scientist reinventing the dialectic.)

--
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