From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!nexus.yorku.ca!tony Tue Apr  7 23:23:12 EDT 1992
Article 4817 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!nexus.yorku.ca!tony
>From: tony@nexus.yorku.ca (Tony Wallis)
Subject: The "Adam's navel" approach.
Message-ID: <1992Mar30.211335.19880@newshub.ccs.yorku.ca>
Sender: news@newshub.ccs.yorku.ca (USENET News System)
Organization: York University
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1992 21:13:35 GMT

To reduce fruitless interactions resulting from incompatible positions
on such world-viewpoint-shattering questions as Chinese Rooms, the
Turing Test, do calculators "understand" arithmetic, etc, etc,
I suggest posters to this group indicate what level they are at in
the following hierarchy of responses to the question :
        "Did Adam have a navel ?"

Level 0: Who's "Adam" ?   What's a "navel" ?

Level 1: Of course he did !  All humans have a navel.  Adam was a
         human.  Therefore, Adam had a navel.  Or: as a prototypical
         human, Adam was therefore a typical human.  Why should he be
         any different in this one regard ?

Level 2: Of course he did not !  The navel is a residue of fetal
         development.  It is absurd to claim that, because other humans
         developed fetally, a special human who, by definition, did
         not develop fetally must, nevertheless, appear as if he did
         develop fetally. 

Level 3: This is a pseudo-question and does not admit of a yes/no
         answer.  The Adam story is at best allegorical, at worst
         merely fictional.  As allegorical metaphor, the navel
         question is an unwarranted extension of the metaphor.  As
         fiction, one could equally well ask if Sherlock Holmes had
         ever had an affair that he kept secret from both Doyle and
         Watson.

Level 4: What shall we do about the environment, poverty, starvation,
         torture, etc, etc ?  Do you want to go for a beer ?

If people would respond only to people at the same level, it would cut
down the traffic quite a bit.

Go quickly to level 4.  Do not by-pass level 3.  Do not collect debating
points.

--
tony@nexus.yorku.ca = Tony Wallis, York University, Toronto, Canada



